Life Cycle
by Emmitha
Summary: AU The Doctor goes to 21st century London to stop an Auton invasion, where he is joined by a young woman. But who is she and how does she know him? Will contain 9th, 10th, and 11th Doctors.
1. Chapter 1

The Doctor hurried through the basement of the department store, keeping away from the dummies that were already beginning to come to life, and cursing his poor timing. He'd hoped to get to the roof to blow the relay device up before the Autons activated, but had been waylaid by a human named Wilson. Wilson worked in this godforsaken place, apparently, and demanded to see identification from the Doctor. But he wasn't fooled by the psychic paper; no he had to go and be _clever_. Wilson had gone on and on about how he knew every health and safety employee in London (which was either a boldfaced lie or truly impressive; the Doctor was leaning towards the former) and he had never seen the Doctor before and blah blah blah. The Doctor had tried to go around him, or at least convince Wilson that he was mistaken, but the stupid ape was having none of it.

Then the dummies had started to move. The Doctor had tried to save Wilson, he really had; but in the end, Wilson just ended up being another person the Doctor had failed. He would deal with the guilt of that later; right now, he had to blow this place up.

As he was running, his sensitive ears picked up the sound of a distressed human female; he couldn't make out what she was saying, but it was loud and unhappy. The Doctor paused; why was someone still in the building? It was supposed to be closed! He hesitated for only a few seconds before Wilson's lifeless face appeared in his mind's eye; no one else was dying on his watch tonight.

He doubled back, finding the door that he thought led to the room where the trapped woman was. He muttered a curse when the door refused to open, and ran about trying to find a different entrance. He pulled a door open in time to see a blonde girl being backed into a corner by the advancing shop dummies. What surprised the Doctor was that she didn't look afraid; in fact, she looked downright _furious_. What was more was she wasn't backing down; she looked like she was actually going to try and fight the Autons!

'_Stupid ape,'_ the Doctor thought as he ran towards her, _'thinking she can take on an Auton.'_ The Doctor skidded to a halt beside her and grabbed her hand on impulse. She looked at him, surprised. "Run!" He ordered, before turning back to the door he'd come through. She ran with him without question, something he was grateful for; he didn't want to have to drag her.

They practically flew into the elevator, and the Doctor quickly pulled out his sonic screwdriver to shut the door. The Autons were faster, now that they were fully awake, though, and the door closed on one's arm as it reached in. Before the Doctor could react, the girl ran forward, wrestling with the arm, and pulling it free of the Auton. "You pulled it' arm off," he said, impressed, but refusing to admit it.

"Yep," she said, blank faced and tossing the arm to him. He caught it on reflex. "Now how's about you tell me who the hell you are and where you got that," she demanded, motioning to his sonic.

He frowned; something about this girl was incredibly off. She should be frightened by the fact that shop dummies had just tried to kill her, not pulling their arms off. She should be asking how they're possible, not demanding answers about his sonic. And she sure as hell shouldn't be looking at him the way she was: like he'd killed her best friend and she was considering killing him as an act of vengeance.

"Don't see why I should tell you," he said gruffly, trying to cover up how thoroughly disgruntled he was.

She stalked closer to him and poked him hard in the chest. "Because I think you stole it. I think you stole it from someone I'm trying to find. And I think if you value your continued existence, you'll tell me _who the hell you are and where you got the screwdriver_."

The Doctor immediately bristled, and neither of them noticed that the elevator doors had slid open. How dare this little idiot of an ape threaten him? _Him!_ "I did _not_ steal it, I _built_ it. It's my own bloody design and I'll thank you _not_ to threaten me," he growled, giving his best Oncoming Storm glare.

The girl blinked, astonished. Not exactly what he was going for (he was rather hoping for fear, honestly), but at least she'd stopped with the glare; her's was almost as frightening as his. _Almost._

"But that's not…" she whispered, trailing off. She poked him in the chest again, though this time it seemed like she was checking if he was real. "Doctor?" She asked, sounding hesitant, scared even.

"How do you know me?" The Doctor asked suspiciously. "Come to think of it, which me do you know? Obviously not this one…"

The girl didn't answer, only launched herself at him in what he thought was an attack, but once she locked her arms around his waist (this girl had a _grip!_), he realized it was a hug. "Oh, yes, hello," he muttered, awkwardly patting her on the back. She pulled away from him suddenly, and he was surprised to find that her eyes were angry again. Before he could even question the mood swing, though, she slapped him so hard he was pretty sure his last eight bodies could feel it. "Ow! Has anyone ever told you you're completely mad!" He snapped, rubbing his (red) cheek.

"You knew!" She yelled at him angrily. "You bloody knew!"

Okay, now she had _really_ lost him. "Knew what?" He snapped, still sulking over being hit. Nine hundred years and no one had ever followed up a hug with a smack.

"You bloody knew this would all happen, and you did it anyway! Well that's just great. Thank you. Thank you very bloody much!" And with that she stomped out of the elevator, leaving the Doctor to splutter in confused indignation.

"Now hold on a tic!" He called angrily, running after her surprisingly quick form. "What the hell are you on about?"

She laughed, though the sound lacked any humor and seemed touched with madness. "Spoilers. Hasn't happened to you yet," she muttered, not slowing her pace.

"You're yelling me and hitting me for something I haven't even done yet?" He asked incredulously.

"S'not like I've got the chance to do it to future you. Might as well take whichever you I can get," she grumbled.

They walked out a fire door, letting them into an alley. Only when the cool night air hit him did the Doctor realize he still needed to blow up the relay device. He made an annoyed sound, and grabbed the girl by the arm. "I'm not done with you, but I need to be somewhere right now. I'll be right back, don't move," he ordered, before going back inside. He made it all of three steps before turning around and sticking his head out the door. "On second thought, wait across the street. Might get hurt if you wait here what with the…'boom' and what not. Back in a mo',"

He hurried inside and to the roof, planting the bomb. He set it to go off in a minute and a half, and ran back downstairs and outside, clearing the building just as the bomb went off. He hurried across the road, and looked up and down the street. There were confused and screaming humans everywhere, and he could hear a fire truck in the distance.

But nowhere in all the chaos was the blonde human he was looking for. He walked up and down the street, checked in a few stores and cafes, but she was nowhere to be found. He growled out a curse, and fisted his hands in annoyance.

Why was he getting so worked up over this blasted girl? He should be avoiding her, if she was from his future! But there was something about her…she was trying to find him, that's what she'd said. How had she lost him? And why was so she cross with him? They must've been close (would be close? Time travel made grammar difficult) for her to hug him like that once she'd realized who he was…

The girl had raised so many questions in him; and, what was more, he felt _drawn_ to her somehow, like he was supposed to be with her. _'Temporal feedback, must be,'_ he thought to himself uneasily. There was no other reason he should feel drawn to her…right?

It was only after he'd given up and returned to the TARDIS that he realized he still had the Auton's arm.

The Doctor used the sonic once he was in the TARDIS to trace the signal coming from the Auton's arm to the main transmitter. He'd expected his ship to take him directly to the thing, but no, it couldn't be that easy, could it? Instead, he'd landed on a sidewalk in between a road and the Thames. He groaned, and started to go back inside for the arm so he could sonic it, but a voice called out and made him pause.

"You're thicker than I remembered."

The Doctor walked around the TARDIS until he found the blonde girl leaning against the side of the box. "How'd you get over here so quickly?" He asked, surprised. He'd blown the shop up only about an hour ago; there was no way she'd gotten over here that quickly!

She stared at him like he was dull. "You skipped a day, apparently. You blew up Henrik's yesterday. Thanks for that, by the way, now I'm out of a job." She scowled at him before pushing off the box and going to look out over the river.

The Doctor winced; he'd only meant to move in space, not in time. Woops. He followed the girl to stand next to her. "So why are you here?" He asked, watching her face.

She was quiet for a moment before she finally turned to look at him. "Same as you; looking for the Nestene Consciousness' transmitter."

The Doctor scoffed. "How? You haven't got the tech."

She raised an eyebrow. "Some of us don't need all the fancy buttons, Doctor. Notice how we're in the same place?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, where is it then?" If she did know, then she could tell him and he could defend his methods of searching by pretending he already knew.

She smirked at him, though, seeing right through him. "You don't know, do you?" He remained stubbornly silent, refusing to give her the satisfaction. She shook her head, smirk still firmly in place. "Learn to rely a bit more on your eyes, and less on the screwdriver," she said with a slight teasing tone in her voice. She turned and looked across the river again.

The Doctor stared at her, waiting for her to tell him. She looked at him, then looked away again. Then did it again. Finally, the Doctor followed her line of sight until he saw the London Eye. "Oh," he breathed, starting to wonder if he was as much of a dunce as she apparently thought.

"There it is," she muttered almost inaudibly, before starting to walk away. "Coming?" she called back to him. He ran to catch up.

"So what exactly where you going to do when you found the Nestene Consciousness?" The Doctor asked curiously.

The girl pulled a small vile from her hoodie. "Anti-plastic," she said simply.

The Doctor blinked. "Where'd you get that?" He asked, checking his pocket surreptitiously to make sure his own vile was still in place.

She smiled slightly. "I have my ways," she said vaguely.

The Doctor studied her in silence as they walked. This girl was definitely more than he'd originally given her credit for; she'd managed to find the transmitter without any tech, _and_ she had somehow acquired anti-plastic. If he'd been curious about her before, it was nothing compared to now.

They reached the Eye, and started looking for the entrance to wherever the Consciousness had set up shop. The girl found it quickly (because the universe was determined that he should look useless today), and they climbed down the ladder into the large room below.

The Doctor went down to talk to the Consciousness, but things went sour rather quickly when it accused the Doctor of being responsible for the destruction of its home planet, and then got even worse when the Doctor was captured by two Autons, who found the anti-plastic in his pocket.

The Doctor tried to make apologies, excuses, _something_, but he was being dragged closer and closer to the edge of the pit. As one toe slid over the edge, he wondered if he had enough regenerations left to climb out before he died.

But then the girl (whom he may have completely forgotten about) came swinging on a chain out of nowhere, knocking the two Auton's into the Nestene Consciousness, and the anti-plastic, too. He caught her as she came swinging back, surprised to find her laughing. She looked so different with the glares and the scowls gone. She was actually quite pretty.

He shoved those thoughts away, letting her go and grabbing her hand (what was with this regeneration and hand holding?), and, with a shout of "Run!" got them into the TARDIS (which the consciousness had brought down) and out before the whole place could blow up.

The Doctor guided the TARDIS away from the London Eye, and over to an alley near Henrik's, where he had first met the girl; he was careful to make sure that he stayed in the same day this time.

He turned to tell her they had landed, but was surprised to find her running a hand over the coral of the console room, with a small smile and tears running down her face. Now that he was paying attention, he realized that his TARDIS was humming contentedly, apparently pleased with the girl's presence.

He watched for a few more moments, trying to puzzle out the mystery that was this girl. "Who are you?" He asked finally.

She looked at him. "There is the long answer to that question and the short answer. The long answer is a story that I have lived and you have not. Someday you will, though." She paused, her eyes far away, then shook her head. "The short answer is Rose. Rose Tyler."

Rose…the name suited her, he decided. Pretty, but with thorns.

"I have to go…You'll see me again someday, Doctor. And, if I'm lucky, I'll see you, too." She turned to walk out, but turned again and ran to him, wrapping him in another bone-crushing hug that he actually returned this time. Then, sniffling quietly, she left, and the TARDIS seemed to dim a bit.


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor went on a few trips after his visit to Earth, trying to keep Rose Tyler out of his mind; but seeing as he knew she was part of his future, the job of not thinking about her became infinitely more difficult. Every flash of blonde hair was her, every accent that sounded even slightly London-ish was her. It was driving him mad, this constant looking to see if she was actually there; especially since he knew she wouldn't be around for this regeneration. So long as he was leather-clad and large eared, he would not be seeing one Rose Tyler, and he just needed to accept that.

That's what he told himself every time a flash of blonde made him go running.

He tried to distract himself by going to see the end of the Earth, but all that did was make him think _'Somewhere down there is Rose Tyler's skeleton.'_ Not exactly a cheery thought. He did stop a bit of stretched skin (who had somehow deluded herself into thinking she was still human, the nutter) from blowing up the observation deck and killing those who had come to watch the Earth burn. He lost a friend in the process, though.

So then he tried going to Naples, 1860, but somehow ended up in Cardiff, 1869 (Something must've been wrong with the TARDIS targeting system; there was no way it was his driving. No way.). It wasn't a _complete_ bust; he did get to meet Charles Dickens, something he'd wanted to do for ages. Of course, then the Gelth had showed up and mucked everything up. And Gwyneth, sweet girl, had died.

It seemed everywhere he went lately, someone died. He tried not to dwell on it overmuch, told himself that more people would have died if he hadn't shown up, but still…three trips, three deaths. And that was without even including the Time War…

But now he was going to Woman Wept; the planet was completely uninhabited, so there was no possible way he could get someone killed.

Well, that was the plan, anyway.

When he stepped out of the TARDIS, instead of being greeted by the white, grey, and sea green landscape of Woman Wept, he instead saw the grey concrete mass that was 21st century London. He scowled, and glared at his beloved ship. "That's it. I'm taking apart your navigation system circuit by circuit until I figure out what's wrong with you," he informed the innocent looking box.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor spun quickly, thinking he recognized the voice. Of course, half-pivot he reminded himself that it couldn't possibly be Rose Tyler.

Except it was. Standing before him, in all her pink and yellow glory, was one Rose Tyler of Earth. "Oh," he said, surprised by her very existence. "Hello!" His voice more cheerful this time, a rare smile spreading across his face.

She smiled hesitantly. "What are you doing here?" She asked curiously, both hands clutching her bag. Her knuckles where white, he noted, like she was trying to squeeze the life from the straps of her innocent handbag.

He shrugged, and reached behind him to knock on the TARDIS. "Navigation system's gone screwy; keeps sending me to the wrong place."

"The TARDIS never goes but where she is meant to be," Rose muttered under her breath.

"Sorry, what was that?" The Doctor asked, frowning. He'd heard her, of course; he meant for her to elaborate.

She only shook her head. "Nothing."

The Doctor thrust his hands in his pockets and tried to think: he wanted to talk to her, ask her questions about their time together. But he couldn't talk to her because she was his future and he honestly probably already knew too much. Just knowing her name and what she looked like might've been too much (but judging by the fact that the annoying tingle that accompanied impending paradoxes wasn't around, he was pretty sure he was safe). There was, of course, the easy way out: if he just opened his temporal third eye, opened the senses he'd dulled in his attempts to forget that he was the last of his kind, if he _looked_ at her timeline, he would know what was safe and what wasn't.

And it was so tempting to do just that.

But he also knew that if he started peeking at her timeline, he'd want more answers, and would look farther into her timeline; that could also be very bad.

In short, she was a puzzle that could only be solved through patience; and the Doctor was terrible with patience.

She was looking at him strangely, now (something she did quite a lot of, in the Doctor's opinion), and the Doctor realized he'd been staring at her for a few minutes as he'd tried to puzzle her out. He quickly averted his eyes, raising one hand to rub across his cropped hair. "So…" he started, realizing he had absolutely no clue what to say.

"I should probably be going…work, and all," Rose said quietly, moving to step around him.

"Oh. Right. 'Course. Be seeing you, then," he said lamely, trying to cover his disappointment.

Her answering smile didn't quite reach her eyes, and the Doctor remembered belatedly that there was every possibility that she would never see him again. He suppressed the urge to hit himself in the forehead, and settled for mentally calling himself a git, and wondering why he couldn't help but put his foot in his mouth every time he talked to her.

He watched her as she walked around him and continued down the sidewalk, before forcing himself to turn away and walk back into the TARDIS.

He'd just opened the door when a loud wooshing noise, accompanied by the screams of pedestrians, caught his attention. He looked up to find the source of the noise just in enough time to see a spaceship crash into Big Ben, then go flying off into the Thames.

An alien spaceship. In London.

_Fantastic!_

* * *

'_Keep walking, keep walking, keep walking…'_ was Rose Tyler's mantra as she walked down the street. As much as she wanted to stay with the Doctor (the Doctor that was not her Doctor but some day would be her Doctor), she knew she couldn't; knew she couldn't risk the timelines like that. She knew she had to let him leave so that he would find her one day, travel with her, then get her stuck here. One big cycle, that was how it had to be.

Sometimes she wondered if it would have been better if he never found her.

But no, she wouldn't give up one second of the time they'd spent together, no matter how short. The Doctor was her best friend, had been with her through so much…She'd learned to understand the universe while traveling with him and she was a better…person…for it.

But walking away from him, even this new (old?) him, hurt. She wanted nothing more than to run back to him, launch herself into his arms, and demand he show her the stars.

So when the Thames suddenly became the new parking spot for one crash landing spaceship, she had to work very hard not to take it as a sign that she was meant to have another adventure with the Doctor.

'_It's just a coincidence. Nothing more. Spaceship on Earth. Landing within eyesight of both of us. On the first day in a year that he's been on Earth. When he just so happened to land right in front of me on the one day that I'm late to work. Total coincidence.'_ With a groan at her own failures in self-control, she turned to go back to him, only to find he was already standing behind her.

"Care to investigate?" He grinned.

She smiled reluctantly back, and prayed that it would be a small adventure that wouldn't end in a paradox.

* * *

Though, honestly, the adventure was lacking in adventure.

The entire city was so completely deadlocked, that they were unable to even get near the crash site. They couldn't even use the TARDIS (which was probably a good thing, as Rose was fairly certain if she went in there again, she'd refuse to come out) since they didn't want to shove another spaceship right under the nose of the government, given the current state of things.

So, after much pacing and grumbling on the part of the Doctor, Rose suggested they do what most people did: watch it on television. The Doctor didn't seem pleased, but it was basically their only available course of action at this point.

Rose led him to her flat, mentally going through a list of her belongings, making sure nothing would tip him off to their future or her origins. Luckily, Rose was a bit of minimalist when it came to nostalgia.

She tossed her keys into a bowl by the door, and motioned for the Doctor to make himself at home. He made a bee-line for the television, while Rose popped into the kitchen to put on some tea.

"You can afford this place on a shop girl's salary?" He called from the other room. Always tactful, him. Ah, well; her flat _was_ a bit large for an average shop girl, she supposed.

"Nope," she answered as she walked in with the tea. She handed him his and sat on the opposite end of the couch. "But I'm on, ah, good terms with the ATM." She shrugged with a small smile.

The Doctor chuckled. "So why bother even working, then? 'Specially at a shop."

"Oi, don't knock it! And I needed a job, if only to keep myself from going insane. 'Sides, I work at a café, now. _Somebody_ blew up my last job," she glared at him, though there was no real heat behind it.

He shrugged it off. "It was necessary. But why go for such simple jobs? You're obviously clever; why not find something more challenging?"

Rose glanced away, and grabbed the remote, flicking the television to the news channel. Luckily, that seemed to distract the Doctor for the moment, as the coverage of the crash was on. There were many reasons she didn't get a more "challenging" job, the least of which was because she didn't have any A-levels; or any schooling, really. Of course, that wasn't anything she couldn't find a way around; forging documents was really too easy.

No, the main reason was that it was 2005, and the Earth would be changing rapidly in the next few years. There was Torchwood and U.N.I.T. and invasions of all shapes and sizes. Not to mention the Master (though, of course, much of the Master's reign would be wiped from history). Rose needed to keep a low profile for a while, and nobody ever noticed a shop girl or a waitress.

The coverage of the crash was mostly useless, as it was mainly speculation and Armageddon talk. Just as they were getting frustrated, however, the news reporter kindly informed them that a body had been recovered from the wreckage and taken to Albion Hospital. Which was also completely incased in gridlock. However, by this point, they were both so completely frustrated with the inactivity (it made Rose wonder how she'd managed to live like a human up to this point), that they decided taking the TARDIS was worth the risk.

* * *

"Don't think I didn't notice how you dodged the question earlier," the Doctor said seriously as they walked along. "You're keeping secrets from me. I hate secrets." Rose started to protest, but the Doctor flapped his hand at her. "Yes, yes, I know. You're from my future, you have to keep secrets. Doesn't mean I like it. Or that I trust you," he added, glancing at her.

Rose frowned. The trust comment hurt a lot more than it should; but she tried to shake it off. "You obviously trust me some; you're bringing me along," she said, trying to keep her tone light.

The Doctor smiled without looking at her. "Only because I've already figured out you would have shown up there whether I brought you or not."

'_Hello again, Red,'_ Rose said telepathically to the TARDIS as she entered, running her fingers along a coral column as the Doctor strode over to the console.

'_Hello, Wolf,'_ the TARDIS responded, obviously pleased.

Rose smiled faintly, keeping her eyes on the Doctor as he steered the TARDIS. _'Why did you bring him to me again? You know we shouldn't be seeing each other; I'm a part of his future, we shouldn't be interacting in his past.'_

The TARDIS somehow managed to convey a scoff into Rose's mind, making her raise an eyebrow. _'You pay as little attention as my Thief, Wolf. Open that eye, and have a look.'_

Rose frowned; she hated when the TARDIS was cryptic.

"Off we pop, then!" The Doctor called, grabbing her hand as he ran past and dragging her off the ship. Their exit is a bit delayed because the Doctor (of course) parked them in a rubbish closet, and they had to push past boxes to even leave the TARDIS. On top of that, the door was locked, and they spent the next few seconds unlocking it.

"Can't ever do it the easy way, can you?" Rose muttered.

"Hush you."

The door clicked open. "There, see, absolutely no—" the Doctor stoped as he opened the door into a room filled with soldiers. "problem," he finished, frowning. The soldiers leapt to their feet, and pointed their guns at the Doctor and Rose.

Rose sighed. She'd so been hoping not to get arrested on this one; might reflect poorly on her record if her employers ever checked. Ah, well; nothing a little hacking couldn't fix.

A scream from down a hall made them all jump. "Defense plan delta, c'mon!" Rose shouted, and took off running towards the scream, the bewildered Doctor and soldiers following behind her. They burst into a dark lab to find a shaking woman on the ground.

"It's alive!" She sobed.

Rose went to comfort and question the woman. "Spread out; tell the perimeter we're on lockdown," the Doctor ordered behind her, then came to join her.

"Do it!" Rose snapped, turning her head to glare at the stationary soldiers. They immediately sprang into action, running from the room.

"Impressive," the Doctor muttered.

"Hush," she responded, eyes on the woman on the floor.

"I swear it was dead!" The woman cried, looking between the Doctor and Rose.

"Coma, shock, hibernation, anything," the Doctor shrugged.

"What does it look like?" Rose asked gently. A clattering noise made them all jump, and look behind them. "It's still here!"

Rose and the Doctor glanced at each other, and the Doctor started crawling towards the desk. Rose stayed back, watching in case the alien decided to run. She watched as the Doctor disappeared behind the desk, and rolled her eyes when she heard his voice a moment later say "Hello!" Honestly, that man would greet just about anything.

She jumped to her feet, though, when she heard a squealing noise, followed by the sudden appearance of what appeared to be a big in a space suit. A soldier that was still in the room raised his gun. "No!" Rose shouted, shoving the soldier aside, but letting the alien-pig-thing run past in the process.

The Doctor ran after it, Rose following. They'd only just made it into the hallway when they heard the gunshot. The pig was dying when they got to the hall. "What'd you do that for?" The Doctor snapped. "It was scared!"

Rose knelt by the pig, stroking it's snout as it died. "Get out. Resume protection of the perimeter," she commanded quietly, then glared until all the soldiers left. "Help me get him back to the mortuary?" She asked the Doctor, looking up at him. He nodded, and they carried the dead pig back.

The woman, a doctor, came over. "Is it really dead this time?" She asked hesitantly. Rose glared, but the Doctor nodded.

"Yeah, poor thing. Probably didn't even know what was going on. One minute he was on a farm, next thing you know someone's been messing with his brain and body and now he's this," the Doctor said sadly.

The woman blinked. "I just assumed that's what aliens look like, but you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth?"

Rose sighed. "More like a mermaid. Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now someone's taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke."

The woman kept talking, but Rose and the Doctor slipped away to the TARDIS while she wasn't paying attention. "You alright?" The Doctor asked, glancing at her as he lifted the grating that led to the wires of the TARDIS.

"Yeah, fine. Just feel bad for that poor animal; shoved into a body he doesn't understand…" Rose trailed off, her thoughts far away, before she shook her head and went over to look down at the Doctor. He was lying flat on his back, screwdriver in his mouth as he fiddled with the wires. "Need some help?"

The Doctor removed the screwdriver from his mouth before looking at her skeptically. "You really think you're qualified to work on the TARDIS?" His tone was dripping sarcasm, and only served to annoy her.

"Budge over," she said in a not-so-happy tone, swinging her legs into the hole before dropping down. She lay down next to the Doctor and peered up at the tangle of wires above them. "What exactly are you trying to do?" She asked.

"I need to patch in the radar, then loop it back twelve hours," the Doctor said, and Rose could practically feel his eyes on her.

"Got it," she said, hands reaching up confidently. She pulled and pushed and reattached and stole his sonic to finish the whole thing up. "Done!" She said triumphantly a few minutes later.

"What are you?" The Doctor said, apparently astonished.

Rose smiled impishly. "I'm everything you never thought possible." And with that, she hoisted herself back up to the main deck of the TARDIS, the Doctor following behind her. They went to the monitor, and the Doctor hit a few buttons. They watched quietly as the trajectory of the ship played before them.

"But that's…" Rose started, trailing off as the truth hit her.

"Yep. The ship originated on Earth. And I want a closer look at it. Have you got a car?" He asked suddenly.

"What? Oh, no. But I'm sure my neighbors wouldn't notice if we, er, _borrowed_ one," Rose shrugged.

The Doctor grinned. "Hold on, then!" He took them back to Rose's neighborhood, and, once again, he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the doors of the TARDIS. Rose smiled slightly, and wondered if all of his regenerations where this fond of hand holding.

They ran outside, and right into a spotlight from a helicopter. "Never easy," Rose sighed, automatically putting her hands in the air as police closed in on them.

"But where's the fun in easy?" The Doctor grinned, before addressing the police. "Take me to your leader!"

Rose kicked him.

* * *

"I get the feeling we're not being arrested," Rose observed once they were in the police car and on their way to…wherever it was they were going.

"Nope. We're being recruited," the Doctor said cheerfully.

"Lovely. Who by?"

"UNIT, mainly. They'll be gathering the world's foremost alien experts, and I just happen to top that list," he added smugly.

Rose groaned. "Fantastic," she muttered. UNIT; just the people she was hoping to avoid. Ah, well. She hadn't made a name for herself in their timeline yet, so it should be fine; besides: their attention would be focused on the alien and the Doctor (who would undoubtedly put on a show for them). She could just sit quietly in the shadows.

The Doctor was frowning at her again, giving Rose the look she recognized as his "I-can't-figure-you-out-and-it-bugs-me" look. Well, good. After all the times he'd left her confused when she first met him, this was payback.

They pulled up to Downing Street, and made their way up to the front door (the Doctor making faces for the cameras, of course) and inside. A man who looked in charge was rounding everyone up and reminding everyone to where their I.D. tags. "Here's yours," he said, coming over to them and handing a tag to the Doctor. "Your companion doesn't have clearance, sorry."

"I don't go anywhere without her," the Doctor stated.

Rose snorted. "That's a lie," she muttered, earning a glare from the Doctor.

"You're the code nine, not her. I'm sorry Doctor, it is Doctor, right? She'll have to stay outside," the man said apologetically, though brusquely.

"Just go," Rose said, interrupting the Doctor before he could protest further. She had her eye on an older woman who was trying to get people to listen to her, anyway. "I'll be fine!" She added cheerfully.

The Doctor stared at her for a moment, before nodding. "Stay out of trouble," he called as he started into the room with the other "experts."

"Doubtful!" Rose called after him.

"I'm going to have to leave you with security," he apologized.

"Oh, I'm sure Harriet here can take me, can't you, Harriet?" Rose said lightly, grabbing a hold of the passing woman's arm.

"Wha—" the woman, Harriet, started, but Rose leaned a little closer to her.

"I can help. Go with it," she muttered so that the man couldn't hear.

"Oh, um, yes, of course," Harriet said, a bit unconvincingly.

The man hesitated, the nodded. "Fine," he said, and walked away.

"Just start walking," Rose instructed quietly, looping her arm around Harriet's.

"Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North," Harriet said, flashing her I.D. at Rose.

Rose smiled to herself; some things never changed. "Yes, I know who you are. I'm Rose Tyler, I travel with the Doctor. Now tell me, what's going on that you've noticed that no one else has?" She asked, glancing at the bewildered woman.

"How did-?" She started, shocked.

Rose smiled tiredly. "You've always been much more observant than anyone has ever given you credit for."

Harriet stared at her for a moment. "Have we met?" She asked, finally.

Rose laughed, a hollow sound. "That is a very simple question with a very, very complicated answer."

Harriet hesitated, but a quiet sob escaped her. She led Rose to the Cabinet Room, which was blessedly empty. Harriet quickly told Rose of all she'd seen that day while hiding in a closet. "They turned the body into a suit. A disguise for the thing inside!" She cried, slightly hysterical by this point.

"It's alright, I believe you. Definitely alien, though I'm not sure which…they must have some serious tech behind this. If we can find it, we can use it. Start searching," Rose ordered, and began going through the drawers in the room. She pulled a cupboard open, and a man's body fell out. The Prime Minister; oh, that _would_ be her luck.

"Oh, that is not good," Rose muttered.

The man from before burst in then, making both Rose and Harriet whirl to face him. "Harriet, for God's sake. This has gone beyond a joke. You cannot just wander—Oh, my God. That's the Prime Minister!" The man went white, and Rose wondered idly if he was going to be sick.

The door was pushed open again, and Rose made a mental note to lock it before the whole building found out about the Prime Minister and decided Rose and Harriet where assassins.

A woman walked in, someone Rose vaguely recognized from the telly. Margret something or other. "Oh! Has someone been naughty?" Margret asked, an evil smirk crossing her features. Rose suddenly had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, and edged closer to Harriet, putting the other woman slightly behind her.

"That's impossible. He left this afternoon. The Prime Minister left Downing Street. He was driven away!" The man continued, still very shocked it seemed.

"And who told you that, hm?" Margret asked in a patronizing voice. "Me." She reached up to her hairline, and a bright blue light suddenly filled the room.

"Back, back! Get back from her!" Rose yelled, pushing Harriet to the far wall. Margret was pulling a zipper down, making her human appearance fall aside, and revealing the very alien creature that lay beneath.

'_So much for staying out of trouble.'_

* * *

**And So ends chapter 2. Hello everyone! I've had the pleasure of hearing from some of you on my last story, but some of you are new, too. Hello! **

**What do you guys think of Rose so far? Any theories? I'd love to hear them!**

**Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, or reviewed!**

**Until next time!**


	3. Chapter 3

Rose watched in horror as the alien-Margaret reached out for the man who hadn't gotten away when she told him to. Margaret grabbed him, and slammed him against the wall, her odd three-fingered hand putting pressure on his throat. "Oh my god," Harriet whispered from behind Rose.

Rose looked desperately for a way out while Margaret was distracted; she felt terrible for the man, but there was no saving him at this point: she was pretty sure he was already dead.

Blue lightning suddenly flickered across Margaret's form, making her shriek in pain. "Run!" Rose shouted at Harriet, grabbing her hand and carefully leading her around Margaret before running from the room. Rose led them through the winding halls, looking for a way out, a place to hide, the Doctor, _something_ to keep them from dying.

"Wait, the emergency protocols, they're still in there! We need them!" Harriet said urgently, pulling out of Rose's grasp to run back the way they'd come.

"Pretty sure we can manage without them!" Rose yelled in annoyance, chasing Harriet. They turned a corner and almost ran right into an alien—who may or may not have been Margaret, it was rather hard to tell. Rose grabbed Harriet's hand again (the Doctor must've rubbed off on her) and pulled her away, running through the corridors again, but now with the alien chasing them.

Rose managed to gain them a bit of a lead by shutting all the doors behind them, forcing the alien to crash its way through. Well, that was until Rose chose what seemed to be the one locked door in the building (though honestly, a government building like this should have a lot more locked doors). "Shit, shit!" She cursed, shoving against the door, trying to get it open.

She heard the ding of the elevator over the shrieks of the alien. "Look!" Harriet whispered pulling Rose from the door and pointing. Rose looked over to see the Doctor standing casually in the elevator, distracting the alien.

"Hello!" The Doctor said cheerfully to the alien.

_'Stop bloody greeting everything and help!'_ Rose shouted internally, wincing when the Doctor flinched, his eyes widening in shock. She shoved Harriet into another room before the Doctor could look at her, though. _'Too much time around psychically-insensitive beings…'_ Rose thought distractedly, telling Harriet to hide; she knew the Doctor hadn't bought them much time. Rose paused just long enough to watch Harriet hide behind a screen, before Rose crouched behind a cabinet.

She heard the sound of the door open, and closed her eyes, trying to work out a plan; which was rather hard to do, given she had absolutely nothing of use on her, and she didn't even know what the damn alien was.

"Oh, such fun," the mechanical sound of Margaret's voice practically purred. "Little human children, where are you?" She called, her voice patronizing. "Hmm, mostly human, anyway," she added, and Rose's eyes snapped open. How did she…?

There was no time for that, Margaret was getting closer, and Rose was realizing just how terrible her hiding spot was. She waited, then ran for the curtains, moving silently, and slid between the fabric.

"Sweet little humeykins, come to me. Let me kiss you better. Kiss you with my big, green lips."

Gah, she was just getting creepy, now. The door opened again, and Margaret greeted her—brothers? Lovely, a family affair. Made everything _so _much more fun. Rose resisted the urge to bash her head against the wall.

"Happy hunting?" One of the male aliens asked.

"It's wonderful! The more you prolong it, the more they _stink_," Margaret answered, her voice taking on a more predatory tone now.

"Sweat, and fear," one of the others said.

'_Okay, sensitive noses, got it.'_ Rose was mentally cataloguing everything she could learn about the aliens, hoping to figure out what they were. The matter of coming up with a plan to get them out of this mess, however, was still not going so well.

"I can smell an old girl," one of the male one's was saying now. "Stale bird, and brittle bones."

Rose scowled, angered on Harriet's behalf. Besides, if they thought _Harriet_ was old…

"And the other, she smells of time itself…both old and young…she'll be a fun one…" Margaret yanked back the curtain Rose was hiding behind, but she had heard her coming, and was ready. She dove to the ground and between Margaret's legs, rolling back to her feet. She saw Harriet peek out from behind the screen, but Rose shook her head slightly to tell her to stay in place; Harriet Jones was far too important to be risking her life in 2005.

Of course, what exactly Rose was going to do, she hadn't quite figured out yet. One of the aliens lunged for her, and Rose leapt over a couch and out of the way, almost running into the Doctor, who chose that moment to burst into the room with a fire extinguisher. "Took you long enough!" Rose muttered, before calling to Harriet while the Doctor sprayed the aliens down.

"Sorry, got held up in the lift!" The Doctor responded cheerfully. Rose and Harriet quickly placed themselves behind the Doctor, who paused to look questioningly at Harriet. "Who the hell are you?"

"Harriet Jones, Flight MP for Flydale North," She responded in an oddly authoritative voice while keeping her eyes glued on the aliens, who weren't dealing so well with the CO2 from the fire extinguisher.

"Nice to meet you," he responded cheerfully before returning to spraying the aliens.

"Must you greet everyone?" Rose muttered while Harriet responded with a "Likewise." Rose felt the Doctor's eyes on her, but kept her eyes on the aliens. The Doctor's fire extinguisher ran out, and they ran from the room, leaving the empty canister behind.

"We need to get to the cabinet room!" The Doctor called, pushing past Rose and Harriet to lead the way.

"The emergency protocols are in there, they give instructions for aliens!" Harriet panted as they ran.

"Harriet Jones, I like you," the Doctor said as he turned into another room.

"And I like you too!" Harriet sounded rather happy about this, and Rose wondered if the extra adrenaline was going to her head.

They finally made it to the cabinet room, pausing only to allow the Doctor to sonic it open. They saw the aliens coming at them from another, open (of course; honestly, she really needed to have a chat with the head of security around here!) door. Rose grabbed a decanter of brandy from a table and tossed it to the Doctor. "Bluff!" She whispered to him as he caught it. He nodded in understanding, turning to the aliens.

"One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Whoof, we all go up. So back off," The Doctor threatened, effectively stopping the aliens in their places.

'_Rule one,'_ Rose thought with a smirk, before looking for the emergency protocols everyone was so desperate to find.

"Right, question time!" The Doctor said cheerfully, earning an eye roll from Rose. "Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

Oh, Slitheen, that's what they were called. Rose thought for a moment, then huffed; she still couldn't quite place them.

"They're aliens!" Harriet answered the Doctor, sounding slightly hysterical again. Rose put a hand on her shoulder to try and calm her down.

"Yes, I got that, thanks," the Doctor said, somehow managing to sound polite. Polite was new, the other him she'd known hadn't been one for politeness…Rose shook herself, telling herself to stop making lists of the differences between this Doctor and her Doctor.

"Who are you, if not human?" One of the male Slitheen asked.

"Who's not human?" Harriet asked, confused.

"He's not human," Rose answered, nodding at the Doctor.

"He's not human?!" Harriet exclaimed, looking a bit worried now.

"Can I have a bit of hush?" The Doctor asked, exasperated. So much for polite.

"Sorry," Harriet said contritely, staying quiet for all of two seconds before looking back to Rose. "But he's got a northern accent!"

"Lots of planets have a north," Rose shrugged.

"I said hush," the Doctor said, definitely annoyed this time.

The Doctor started talking to the Slitheen then, and Rose edged away, ignoring them, and looking for something in particular. Harriet had found the case containing the emergency protocols, and was clutching it for all she was worth.

Rose had just found what she was looking for when she heard one of the Slitheen say "You're making it up."

"Ah, well, nice try!" The Doctor said a bit nervously.

"I'd call it a success," Rose said, flipping up a panel to reveal a button. "Kept'em distracted for long enough, anyway," she added cheerfully, hand slamming down on the button. Metal shutters came out from the doorway and the window frames to cover every exit in the room.

"Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in. Fantastic!" The Doctor exclaimed, beaming at Rose.

"And how do we get out?" Harriet asked, her voice doubtful.

Rose and the Doctor looked at each other. "Ah," they said in unison.

* * *

Rose helped the Doctor drag the dead body of the man from before into the closet, and lay him next to the Prime Minister's body. She turned away, while the Doctor and Harriet began to talk about what the Slitheen could possibly want with the Earth. Rose pulled out her phone, scrolling through her contacts, and generally ignoring the talk around her. She hit the call button, and put the phone to her ear, the other two finally noticing what she's up to.

"How'd you get service through all the steel?" Harriet asked, her eyes wide.

"Long story."

"Who're you calling?" This from the Doctor, who also sounded confused.

Rose smiled as she heard click of the phone being answered. "Help."

"Rosie!" Came from the other end of the phone.

"Hey, Jack. I need a bit of help. Know the alien stuff that's going on in London? I'm stuck in the middle of it." She paused, listening to Jack, before grinning. "Yeah, I know, trouble magnet, that's me. Listen, I need you to hack into UNIT's website. Let me know when you're in." She turned to look at the Doctor, who was sort of gaping at her. "What?"

"Who is that?" The Doctor demanded, finally gaining control of himself. "A friend. We can trust him, I promise. And no, I can't tell you anymore about him. Spoilers," she smiled sweetly, and ignored the Doctor's glare.

"Spoilers?" Harriet asked, looking even more confused now as she glanced between the Doctor and Rose.

"Also a long story," Rose supplied apologetically.

"Right," The Doctor said loudly, pulling focus back to the task at hand. Rose switched her phone to speaker, and set it on the table. They could hear the sounds of typing and muttering from the other end. "So why crash into Big Ben?" The Doctor asked.

"You said to gather the experts, to kill them," Harriet pointed out.

"That lot would've gathered for a weather balloon," The Doctor snorted. "You don't need to crash land in the middle of London."

"The Slitheen are hiding, but then they go and put the planet on red alert. What would they do that for?" Rose mused, sitting down on the table.

"We're in," Jack's voice said from over the phone. They all looked down at it.

"Right, top left of the screen, little concentric circles, click on it," the Doctor ordered, having already caught on to Rose's plan.

"Wait, Rose is that—" Jack started, but Rose quickly cut him off.

"Yes, it is, but very early in his timeline, so far as I can tell," she said loudly, to keep anything else he said from being heard. The Doctor glanced at her, and she stared back until he backed down.

"Right, understood," Jack muttered. "What is this?"

"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal. Now hush and let me work it out," the Doctor ordered.

"It's some sort of message…" Rose murmured, eyes closed as she listened.

"What's it say?" Harriet asked quietly.

"Don't know, it's on a loop. Keeps repeating," the Doctor answered. Rose opened her eyes and saw the Doctor was looking at her in his "I-still-can't-figure-you-out-and-it's-really-star ting-to-drive-me-mad" way again. She realized she probably shouldn't have given away that she could understand the signal, and blushed slightly.

"It's beaming out into space…who's it for?" The Doctor muttered, his eyes still on Rose, though she suspected he wasn't really looking at her anymore.

"You've made the evening news," Jack interrupted, and the sound of a television could be heard.

"Ladies and gentlemen, nations of the world, humankind. The greatest experts in extra-terrestrial events came here tonight. They gathered in the common cause, but the news I bring you now is grave indeed."

"That's one of the Slitheen! He was in the body of Mr. Green!" Harriet exclaimed.

"The experts are dead, murdered right in front of me by alien hands. Peoples of the Earth, heed my words. These visitors do not come in peace." Green continued. "Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads, and they have found massive weapons of destruction, capable of being deployed within forty five seconds."

"What?" The Doctor said in quiet disbelief. Rose looked at him, a look of mutual worry passing between them.

"Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long," Green's voice was deceptively hopeless as he continued, convincing, Rose was sure, the entire population that the situation was bleak. "We are facing extinction, unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg of the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival. Because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war."

"He's making it up!" The Doctor said angrily, striding away from the phone and the table to pace in the open area of the room. "There's no weapons up there, no threat. He just invented it!"

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet asked fearfully.

"Humans have believed stupider," Rose muttered.

"That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle. They want the whole world panicking, because you lot, you get scared, you lash out!" The Doctor was getting increasingly agitated now, his pacing getting more erratic.

"They release the defense codes," Rose sighed, rubbing her face.

"And the Slitheen go nuclear," the Doctor finished, striding over to the main door and reaching for the button that controlled the shutters.

"But why?" Harriet asked desperately.

The Doctor glanced at her before pressing the button to open the shutters, revealing the waiting Slitheen. "You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back. World War Three. Whole planet gets nuked," the Doctor stated, glaring at the Slitheen.

Margaret, in her human suit, walked forward then, smirking. "And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away." Rose was really getting to hate this woman.

"But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place. What for?" Harriet protested.

"Profit. That's what the signal is beaming into space. An advert," the Doctor's voice was disgusted now, his glare bordering on Oncoming Storm mode.

"The sale of the century. We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece," Margret said slowly, taunting them now. "Radioactive chucks, capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

"At the cost of five billion lives!" Rose snarled, her teeth practically bared with the force of her fury.

"Bargain," Margret shrugged, not caring.

"I give you a choice," the Doctor started, "leave this planet, or I'll stop you." Sometimes Rose wished he wasn't so damn _noble_. This planet was her home now, and she did not take kindly to seeing it threatened. They wanted to burn the planet? She would burn them.

"What, you?" Margaret taunted, a wide, unpleasant smile splitting her face. "Trapped in your box?"

"Yes. Me," the Doctor said simply, then pressed the button to close the shutters again.

* * *

Harriet went to sleep while Rose and the Doctor paced. The Doctor was planning, Rose was trying to keep herself from shouting obscenities. It was about four in the morning before the Doctor finally spoke.

"Shouldn't you get some sleep? You've been up for a while…"

Rose looked at him, and wondered when he'd stopped pacing and started watching her. She looked away, and continued wearing down the carpet. "I'm fine," she muttered. And she was, at least sleep-wise. She slept more often than the Doctor, but not quite as much as an average human; she'd already had about ten hours this week, she was set for a few days. Of course, she couldn't very well tell the Doctor that.

He seemed to accept her answer, though, and didn't push it. "Earlier, when I was on the lift and you and Harriet were trying to get into that locked room," he started, and Rose worked very hard to keep her face blank of emotions. "I thought…" he frowned, "I thought I heard you. In here," he tapped his head.

Rose glanced at him, and looked away, and kept pacing. "Must've been your imagination," she muttered, eyes on the floor. A pair of boots appeared in her vision, and hands on her shoulders stopped her pacing. She looked up and into the sharp blue eyes of the Doctor. He stared at her for a moment, trying to figure her out again, Rose could tell. He sighed, and released her.

"I don't believe you, for the record," he told her as he went over to sit on the table. "But I'm going to assume it falls under 'things to not tell the Doctor in case of paradoxes,'" he smiled slightly at her, and Rose returned it half-heartedly.

* * *

They didn't talk again until Harriet and the sun woke up.

The Doctor had resumed pacing at some point, and now it was Rose that sat and watched him, having calmed down enough to be still. Harriet joined her. "What's he doing?" She whispered.

"Trying to come up with a different way out," Rose answered, not bothering to keep her voice down as she watched him.

The Doctor halted, and stared at her. "He already knows one way out?" Harriet asked, her eyebrows drawing down into a frown to convey her confusion.

"It's dangerous. Far too dangerous," the Doctor said, watching Rose and ignoring Harriet.

"But it's the only way. The _only_ way, Doctor. If we don't do this, everyone dies," Rose said simply.

"What is it?" Harriet demanded, glaring now and looking between them.

"I could save the world but lose you," the Doctor all but whispered, looking desperately at Rose.

"Then we do it," Harriet said firmly, standing and stepping into the Doctor's line of sight to ensure she wouldn't be ignored again. "If it is truly the only way to save the Earth, then we must do it, Doctor. Yours, hers, and my lives be damned."

The Doctor stared at her for a moment, the glanced over her shoulder to Rose. She nodded. "Get Jack back on the phone," the Doctor ordered, going to the emergency protocols (which had been deemed useless and abandoned ages ago; honestly, it was what Rose had been saying all along!).

Rose pulled out her phone and called Jack, praying he was still at Torchwood.

"Rose Tyler, do you have any idea what time it is," came Jack's groggy voice from the other end.

"The world's about to end and you're worried about losing your beauty sleep?" Rose snapped, then turned the phone on speaker again. "Up, up, up, back to your computer."

There was grumbling, but it sounded like Jack was complying.

"Hack into the Navy," the Doctor ordered, still sifting through the papers.

"We're in," Jack's not quite awake voice said. Rose smiled; her Jack could hack even while he was half-asleep.

"Right, we need to select a missile," the Doctor ordered, his tone business like.

"We can't go nuclear, we don't have the codes," Jack pointed out.

"We don't need nuclear, all we need is an ordinary missile," Rose answered, glancing at the Doctor then back to the phone.

"What's the first category?" The Doctor asked.

"Sub Harpoon, UGM-A4A."

"That's the one, select." The Doctor paused. "You ready, then?"

"Yeah," Jack's voice was awake now, and solemn.

"Fire," the Doctor said quietly.

"Be safe, Rosie," Jack said quietly, and they heard a quiet beep that signaled he'd fired the missile.

"Thanks Jack, call you when it's over," Rose said hurriedly, then hung up her phone.

"How solid are these?" Harriet asked, no trace of fear in her voice as she felt the steel shutters over the windows.

"Not strong enough; built for short range attack, nothing this big," the Doctor said flatly, and looked up. He frowned. "What are you doing?"

Rose, who was already over at the cupboard, emptying it out, looked up. "What? I don't plan on dying today," she grinned, her tongue caught between her teeth. Oh, she had missed the adventure of all this! "This cupboard's small, so should it be strong enough for us to ride it out. Come and help me!"

Harriet hurried over, and together they finished emptying it. "C'mon, then!" Rose shouted at the Doctor, before she and Harriet piled into the closet. They sat under a small shelf in a corner, and the Doctor quickly came in and sat between them.

"Nice knowing you both," Harriet said, her voice oddly excited. Rose grinned at the Doctor, and took his hand. He grinned back, and they all hunkered down just as the missile hit. They were all tossed around as the steel room shifted in the blast, and it seemed like a lifetime before everything finally went still, and the noise stopped.

Rose groaned and picked herself up from where she'd fallen over on the floor. "You alright?" Came the Doctor's anxious voice from above her as he helped her to stand.

Rose smiled, slightly dazed. "Peachy. You alright, Harriet?"

"Made in Britain!" Harriet called happily as she stood up, looking slightly rumpled, but none the worse for the wear.

The Doctor kicked down the metal door, which was apparently weakened from the blast, and they carefully stepped out into the rubble of what used to be 10 Downing Street. A soldier ran up to help them, but Harriet flashed her I.D. (making Rose grin) and told him to contact the UN and have them stand down.

Rose carefully backed away while the Doctor spoke with Harriet. She'd helped save the world; it was time for her to disappear before anyone found out who she was, or she forgot she couldn't just swan off with the Doctor.

She hurried off, going unnoticed amongst all the civilians coming out to see what had happened at Downing Street. Rose sighed, remembering she was about to become one of these again; ordinary, useless.

She made it to her neighborhood, but went to the TARDIS instead of her flat.

'_Hello, Red. I've come to say goodbye,'_ she said telepathically, a sad smile on her face as she stroked the blue painted wood.

'_And why would you be saying goodbye, Wolf?'_ The TARDIS asked, a sly note in her voice that confused Rose.

'_You know I can't travel with the Doctor; Not anymore, anyway.'_

'_Didn't you listen to me earlier? Open your eye!'_

'_What are you talking about?'_ Rose snapped, annoyed now.

'_Think, Wolf. You know what I'm telling you,'_ and with that, the TARDIS refused to speak to Rose anymore.

She growled, and contemplated kicking the infuriating box, but decided against it. Open her eye? What the hell did that—

Oh. Rose immediately felt like an idiot for not realizing sooner. But what good would that do? Rose frowned, contemplating the TARDIS for a moment before she sighed. "Why not," she muttered, and closed her eyes.

Then she opened her temporal eye, that part of her brain that let her see timelines. She didn't do this very often, as it felt like cheating. And she never looked at her own timeline, because that felt even worse. But when none of the surrounding timelines seemed to have anything to offer, Rose carefully turned her attention to her own timeline; and what she saw made her physical eyes fly open.

She could travel with the Doctor. She was _meant_ to travel with the Doctor! Well, meant was a strong word. It was a possible timeline, and it didn't cause any damage and—

Son of a bitch. The Doctor, her Doctor, the one she'd first met; he'd seemed to know her even when they'd only just met. She'd asked him about it, and he'd just shrugged it off at the time. But he'd known her because he'd already traveled with her! Oh, she was going to kill him.

Speak of the devil, the Doctor (the current one) was walking towards her now, looking confused. "There you are! Wondered where you'd run off to. Wanted to say goodbye before I—OW!" He yelped as she slapped him. "What the bloody hell was that for?!"

"Something you haven't done yet," Rose said, glaring. Then she grinned. "I'm coming with you," she informed him.

He stared at her. "Now, Rose, you know as much as I'd like that, you can't. Not if you're supposed to travel with me in my future, it's too danger—" he was cut off as she slapped her hand over his mouth.

"Hush. Check the timelines," she instructed. He glared at her for a moment, then sighed, the air from his nose tickling her hand. He shut his eyes, and went still for a moment. Rose withdrew her hand, and watched quietly, bouncing on the balls of her feet. She hadn't been this excited in…far too long!

His eyes opened suddenly, and he grinned at her, then moved past to unlock the TARDIS door. He pushed it open, then bowed. Rose suppressed a giggle. "After you."

* * *

**And that is the story of how Rose started traveling with the Doctor a second time! Or first, depending on your point of view. Next chapter I'll be covering "Dalek."**

**Several people sent in theories, and the general consensus so far seems to be that Rose sounds like she might be a Time Lady, but that's far too obvious. Anyone else got anything?**

**Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed!**

**Until next time! **


	4. Chapter 4

"So, out of curiosity," the Doctor started, watching Rose carefully, "how did you know that you traveling with me was compliant with the timelines?" He had an idea; a terrible, wonderful, impossible idea that he didn't dare hope for, and yet…

Rose looked up from her place by the console, where she'd been running her hands across various buttons and levers, apparently taking inventory. She looked at him for a moment, and the Doctor got the impression that she was arguing with herself. "I have my sources," she said at last.

He frowned; of course. He really shouldn't have expected anything other than a cryptic answer. But still… "_everything you never thought possible_" and all that. He had to ask. "You're not, ah, a…a Time Lord, or Lady, rather, are you?" He asked, hoping she missed the slight note of hope in his voice. He tried to squash that hope, knowing it would most likely only hurt him in the end.

Her face fell, a look poorly concealed pity crossing it. "Never mind," he said quickly, turning away. He had his answer right there, and he certainly didn't want to be pitied; didn't deserve to be pitied.

"Right, so where to, then?" He asked, forcing a note of cheerfulness into his voice. He felt her—slightly hesitant—hand on his shoulder, and moved to the other side of the console before it could completely settle. "Past, future, another planet? How about Saturn, the rings are supposed to be lovely this time of year…" he trailed off, pausing in front of the screen and frowning.

"What is it?" Rose asked, moving to stand next to him again. He was grateful that she'd apparently given up trying to comfort him.

"Dunno. Looks like a distress signal, but it's in Utah, 2012. So far as I know, nothing of importance happens in Utah of 2012. Now, Ledworth, _there's_ an exciting place in 2012. But Utah? Nothing." He turned to grin at Rose. "Let's check it out!" She smiled back at him.

They walked out a few minutes later into a place that looked like a concrete bunker. "This is kind of creepy…" Rose muttered, looking around in the little light. Her hand ghosted along a wall until she found a light switch. The lights lit up a section at a time, revealing row upon row and case upon case of alien artifacts and, in a few cases stuffed aliens. "Okay, this is _really_ creepy," she muttered, looking at a stuffed Slitheen arm.

"Oh, look at you!" The Doctor murmured, making his way to a glass display case. The head of a Cyberman was inside, staring back at him with exactly as much emotion as it had managed while it was alive.

"Cyberman…" Rose murmured, almost making the Doctor jump; he hadn't realized she'd come to stand next to him.

He stared at the Cyberman for a moment longer. "I'm getting old," he muttered, and reached out to touch the case. Rose smacked his hand away.

"Someone went to a lot of trouble to gather all these, I'm willing to bet there's security," she said in response to his unanswered question (and his indignant glare. Honestly, He'd only really known her for a few days and this would be the third time she'd slapped him!).

"True, but springing security is the easiest way to figure out who owns the place!" He said with a grin, then tapped the glass. Immediately, alarms went off and soldiers with guns appeared, lining the Doctor and Rose up in the cross hairs.

"_Great_ plan," Rose muttered to him sarcastically, lifting her hands over her head.

The Doctor just grinned at her, mirroring her position with his hands over his head. They were led down a hall and deeper into the bunker. Finally, they were led into a room where a younger man, who looked to be about Rose's age, was handing a small metal object to an older, pompous looking man.

"I think it may be to channel fuel," the younger man was saying, while the older one turned the object around in his hands.

"I wouldn't hold it like that, if I were you," Rose commented. The Doctor glanced at her for a moment, her knowledge of alien technology once again catching him by surprise; he kept forgetting she wasn't just another stupid ape.

"Shut it," one of the guards said.

"Really, though," the Doctor added, watching the older man, and ignoring the soldiers around them. "You're holding it wrong."

"Is it dangerous?" The younger man asked, a bit nervously.

"No, it just looks silly," the Doctor grinned, then reached for it. The soldiers around them all cocked their guns, aiming for the Doctor's head. Rose made a faint growling noise, clearly annoyed with the current situation. The older man, the boss apparently, handed the Doctor the small object. "Care to do the honors?" He asked Rose, moving to hand it to her.

She took it from him delicately, then softly started to stroke it. Faint music started to play; quiet, like wind chimes.

"It's a musical instrument!" The bossman said, a bit of awe in his voice.

"And it's a long way from home," Rose answered quietly, stopping the music.

"Here, let me," the man said greedily, reaching for it like a small child. Rose handed it over obediently, and the man promptly made the instrument screech.

"Delicately, _Delicately_," the Doctor said, wincing and covering his ears. The man managed to make the instrument play, though not quite as prettily as Rose had. "Very good," the Doctor said, removing his hands from his ears. "Quite the expert."

"As are you two," he replied, tossing the instrument into a corner and causing Rose to make a noise of protest, then turn a glare onto the man; he ignored it. "Who exactly are you?"

"I'm the Doctor, and this is Rose," the Doctor answered, and looked the man over curiously. "And who are you?"

"Like you don't know," the man scoffed. The Doctor was starting to like him less and less the more he opened his gob. "We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artifacts in the world, and you just stumbled in by mistake."

"Pretty much!" The Doctor said cheerfully.

"The question is: how did you get in? Fifty three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplice. You're quite a collector yourself, she's rather pretty," he added, turning to leer at Rose.

"She's going to smack you if you keep calling her she," Rose growled.

"I'd listen to her, if I were you," the Doctor added seriously. "Been on the receiving end of some of her smacks; not pleasant."

"He's Mr. Henry van Statten," the younger man said quickly, interrupting Mr. van Statten from saying something that most likely would have ended with him having Rose Tyler's hand print on his cheek.

"And who are you?" Rose asked, looking the boy up and down for a moment. The Doctor felt a slight flare of jealousy, which he quickly stamped down.

The boy swallowed. "Adam," he muttered. Rose nodded and looked away. The Doctor tried to stomp down the bit of victory he felt, too.

"So you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum. Anything you don't understand, you lock up," the Doctor said, turning back to van Statten.

"And you claim greater knowledge?" van Statten sneered.

"I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am," the Doctor answered simply; he could almost feel Rose rolling her eyes next to him. He frowned; when had he gotten to know her so well?

"And yet, I captured you," van Statten smirked, puffing up a little. "Right next to the cage. What were you doing down there?"

"You tell us," Rose responded, lifting one blonde eyebrow.

Van Statten spared Rose the most cursorary of glances, before turning back to the Doctor; Rose huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, the Doctor worked very hard to fight down a smile. "The Cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?" The Doctor prompted.

"Like you don't know," van Statten scoffed, apparently enjoying himself.

"Show me," the Doctor all but ordered, growing tired of the game.

Van Statten stood up, and started gesturing to one of the soldiers. "Goddard, inform the Cage we're heading down." He turned to Adam next, snapping and pointing at Rose. "You, English. Look after the girl. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do." Rose growled again. "And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet," van Statten grinned, and began to lead the way out.

"Um," Adam said shyly, coming up to Rose.

"Nope," she said simply, and followed the Doctor (who was working very hard not to laugh right now.)

Van Statten turned to glare at Rose, who glared right back. "I know just as much, if not more than, him, so don't even think about it, mate," she snapped.

"Whatever," van Statten muttered, turning back around to lead the way.

The Doctor moved to walk next to Rose. "You know more than me, huh?" He whispered, leaning down a bit to reach her shorter frame.

"Don't you start with me," she muttered back, apparently still annoyed with her treatment. The Doctor chuckled, and stood up straight again; quite the wolf, his companion was.

"We've tried everything. The creature has shielded itself but there's definite signs of life inside," van Statten explained as they drew closer to a large concrete structure with a lot of computer equipment outside of it.

"Inside? Inside what?" The Doctor asked, in business mode now.

"Welcome back, sir. I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting," a scientist said, coming forward.

"Metaltron?" Rose asked, that blonde eyebrow going up again.

"Thought of it myself. Good, isn't it?" Rose (very poorly) hid a bark of laughter behind a cough. "Although I'd much to prefer to find out it's real name," van Statten added, with a glare at Rose.

"I can pretty much guarantee you it's not 'Metaltron,'" Rose mused, a perfectly innocent smile on her face.

"Go ahead, then, impress me," van Statten said, still glaring at Rose, and motioned the scientist to open the doors to the "Cage."

"Seems you've found yourself an archenemy," the Doctor remarked casually to Rose as they stepped inside.

Rose scoffed. "He's not worth my piss," she muttered distractedly, peering through the darkness, and trying to get a glimpse of whatever poor alien they'd trapped down here.

The Doctor turned to the darkness as well. "Look, I'm sorry about this," he called into the gloom, watching for signs of life. "Mr. Van Statten might think he's clever, but never mind him. We've come to help. I'm the Doctor, and this is Rose."

"DOC-TOR," an electronic voice said slowly.

"No…" Rose whispered, something like terror in her voice.

"DOCTOR!" the voice repeated, just as the lights started to come up in the room.

"Impossible," the Doctor whispered, staring at the Dalek.

The Dalek started pulling against the chains that held it in place, screaming exterminate all the while. "YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS, YOU MUST BE EXTERMINATED!" The Dalek yelled. Its gun twitched to shoot them, and the Doctor automatically pulled Rose behind him. They waited for the blast of light that would be the end of the both of them, but it never came.

"It's not working," the Doctor murmured, finally noticing the broken gun. He let out a startled laugh, and started to stalk towards the chained Dalek. "Fantastic! Oh, _Fantastic!_" The Doctor said with dark excitement, glaring at the useless lump of metal before him. "Powerless! Look at you. The Great Space Dustbin. How does it feel?" He growled as he drew closer.

"KEEP BACK!" The Dalek yelled; and, to the Doctor at least, it sounded frightened.

He continued to stalk towards it until he was only inches away, just out of reach, and leaned over to glare into its eyestalk. "What for? What're you going to do to me? If you can't kill, then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you? You're nothing," he said darkly, taunting it. "What the hell are you here for?" He demanded after a moments silence.

"I AWAITING ORDERS!"

"What the does that mean?" The Doctor snapped.

"I AM A SOLDIER! I WAS BRED TO RECEIVE ORDERS!"

"Well you're not going to get any. Not ever," he sneered. Oh, the rage this monstrosity inspired in him! How it made him want to scream and yell and _destroy_.

"I DEMAND ORDERS!" The Dalek yelled, struggling against its chains once more, almost in agitation.

"They're never going to come! Your race is dead!" The Doctor screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. He would crush any hope this Dalek had, was capable of having. He would destroy it from the inside out. "You all burnt, all of you. Ten million ships on fire. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second," he said slowly, as if savoring the words.

"YOU LIE!"

"I watched it happen! I _made_ it happen!" And for one small moment, the Doctor felt an ounce of pride.

"YOU DESTROYED US?"

Us. That us meant more than the Dalek thought. The Dalek meant the Dalek race; when the Doctor heard it, he heard it as the Daleks and the Time Lords both. He stood up from his bent position, and turned away a bit, the pride and anger vanishing from his face. "I had no choice…" he said softly.

"AND WHAT OF THE TIME LORDS?"

"Dead," The Doctor said flatly, memories of the Time War playing in his mind's eye. "They burned with you. The end of the last great Time War," he scoffed, quietly. "Everyone lost."

"AND THE COWARD SURVIVED."

That ignited the Doctor's rage again, and whirled around to glare at the Dalek once more. "Oh, and I caught your little signal. Help me," he taunted, his voice slipping into a higher pitch. "Poor little thing! But there's no one coming because there's no one left."

"I AM ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE," The Dalek said, lowering his eyestalk sadly.

"Yep," the Doctor smiled darkly.

"SO ARE YOU. WE ARE THE SAME."

The Doctor's smile fell away, and he looked equal parts horrified and enraged. "We're not the same! I'm not—" he was cut off as the Dalek was suddenly covered in electricity, screaming in pain; a scream that the Doctor hadn't heard since the Time War. "Wha—" he murmured, shocked (pardon the pun), and turning around. Hi eyes landed on Rose, who he had completely forgotten about. She was standing with her hand on a lever, tear stains marring her face as she stared at the Dalek, her face strangely emotionless.

"Rose, what are you—"

"It deserves to suffer," she whispered, her eyes never moving from the screaming Dalek. "It deserves to die and it deserves to _suffer_," she said, a bit louder, her voice cracking near the end.

The Doctor moved closer, and reached to take her hand off the lever. As much as he might agree, something about seeing Rose like this disturbed him; he'd seen anger in her, to be sure, but for the most part, he'd thought her a kind-hearted and innocent individual. To see her like this… "Rose, let the lever go," the Doctor said quietly, his hand resting on hers. He tried to pull it away, but her grip was too tight even for him.

"It deserves to suffer," she repeated, stiffly.

"HAVE PITTY!" the Dalek screamed.

"Why should I?" Rose asked, her voice hard. "You never did."

Guards rushed in, then, going for Rose mainly, but the Doctor as well. Rose pushed the lever higher to turn the voltage up, before turning to face the guards. In an impressive display of martial arts, she managed to take out three before several of them managed to get a hold of her limbs. One guard turned down the voltage on the Dalek.

"I saved your life, now speak to me, damn it!" Van Statten was yelling.

Rose smiled grimly. "It'll never speak again."

And the Doctor knew she was right; just before the voltage coursing over the Dalek had turned off, the Dalek has stopped screaming, and the light of its eyestalk had faded away; it was dead.

Van Statten whirled around, glaring and stalked towards Rose. He backhanded her when he got close enough, causing her head to whip violently to the side, her blonde hair covering her face for a moment. The Doctor yelled in fury, and tried to pull away from the men holding him, but with little success. Rose chuckled, turning her head back, with a little toss to move her hair, so that she was facing van Statten again. There was a bit of blood running from the corner of her lip, but she smiled at van Statten icily. "That all you got?" she taunted him.

Van Statten growled. "Take them to room 321A and chain them up," he ordered, stalking away.

* * *

The Doctor and Rose were chained to upright examination tables, the like of which are usually only seen in horror movies. The Doctor's jumper and jacket had been removed (for reasons he'd rather not postulate at the moment), but Rose had been allowed to keep her clothes.

The Doctor wiggled about, trying to slip out of his bindings. "I'm having no luck; anything on your end?" He whispered to Rose; he didn't know if there were cameras or microphones in here, but he'd rather not be overheard.

Rose didn't respond, and when the Doctor turned his head to look at her, her eyes were closed, and there was a look of deep concentration on her face.

"Gah," the Doctor grumbled, deciding Rose would be of no help at this point. And why the hell wasn't she working to get them out? She'd gotten them in this mess in the first place! Admittedly, if she hadn't done it, he probably would have; but she was supposed to be the reasonable one! He had the history with the Daleks! His people had been slaughtered by them! He should've been the one to go postal, not her! And now he was going to be dissected by some nutter who thought he owned everything that fell out of the bloody sky. Rassilon only knows what would happen to Rose.

Someone started pulling at his chains, and the Doctor's eyes snapped open (when had they closed?). Rose was working on the locks to his bindings with a hair pin, eyes glued to her work, and strangely silent. "How'd you get free?" The Doctor demanded, shocked, as one arm was freed and she moved to the next. She offered him a tired smile, and went back to work. The Doctor frowned, watching her face now as she worked. She was strangely pale, and drawn, as if she had just gone through intense physical exertion. "What did you do?" he muttered. Her only answer was to move to the bindings on his legs.

"The screwdriver's in my top pocket, in my jacket," the Doctor said after a moment, common sense returning to him.

"Already done," Rose said as the last lock popped open. Her voice was as tired as her face, and the Doctor felt concern bubble in his stomach. And curiosity; so much curiosity.

"Right then," he muttered, quickly throwing his jumper and jacket back on. "We better get going before they catch us, then."

Rose simply nodded. The Doctor grabbed her hand, and the two slipped out of the room, and took off down the hall.

Getting back to the TARDIS was extremely difficult for several reasons. The first being that the Doctor insisted they stopped at a computer so that he could wipe their system completely. After that, the alarms sounded, and the halls filled with guards looking for them. That made their progress towards the TARDIS slow enough; add on Rose's sudden unexplained exhaustion, and the Doctor began to seriously doubt they would make it back. Somehow, they did, though, and it was with relief that the Doctor unlocked the TARDIS and let them both in.

Rose collapsed on the jump seat, but the Doctor ran about the console, sending them into the vortex, before he allowed himself to rest. When he did, he turned to Rose, his face expectant.

"What do you want to know?" She sighed, not bothering to open her eyes.

The Doctor scoffed. "What don't I want to know, would be shorter," he answered.

Rose sighed again, and rubbed her forehead before she sat up, and opened her eyes. "There's a lot I can't tell you yet," she started, ignoring the Doctor as his eyes narrowed into a glare; he was really getting tired of hearing that. "How I got out…let's just say it's a little trick I have, and it's something I can't do very much of or very often because it completely wears me out," she motioned to herself, "obviously," she added with a small smile.

The Doctor did not return it. "And the Daleks? You completely lost it back there. That kind of rage, of _darkness_," he shook his head.

"It's no different than the darkness I've seen in you!" Rose protested, glaring now.

"But I have a reason!" The Doctor exploded, pushing off of where he'd been leaning on the console to march over to Rose. He put a hand on either arm rest so that she was trapped between his arms, and leaned down so that he was invading her personal space. "They destroyed my people, my family. They pushed my people to the absolute limit, and made me do what I had to do to end the war! They're the reason I'm alone!" He growled. He grew angrier when Rose refused to back down.

She shoved her way free of his arms, and wobbled for a moment on unsteady legs before turning to face him. "Yours aren't the only people they destroyed," she said coldly. "Mine were destroyed before I even got to meet them. You are not the only one allowed righteous anger." She stalked out of the room, leaving the Doctor alone.

He yelled in rage once she was gone, and kicked at a coral column, causing the TARDIS to hum at him in annoyance. He grumbled something that sounded like an apology, and set to pacing the TARDIS, muttering and cursing to himself in Galifreyan as he went.

Finally, after several hours, he collapsed into the jump seat and put his face in his hands.

A Dalek had escaped the carnage of the Time War. One had lived after the Doctor had set out to destroy both races. One had lived. He had failed.

"Rassilon, forgive me," he whispered brokenly to the memory of his people.

* * *

**First of all, sorry this update took so long. We have a random baby in the house, and she cries A LOT, so that made writing hard. This chapter as a whole was difficult for me, too, as you might be able to tell. I like the end better than the beginning, definitely.**

**Thanks so much to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed! You guys are Fantastic!**

**Until next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

Things were…uncomfortable, between the Doctor and Rose. He still didn't quite trust her, and she was still angry with him for being a git. Even the TARDIS was getting sick of their cold war, and she told Rose as much.

"Once he realizes that I can't tell him everything and he isn't, in fact, the center of the universe, I'll forgive him!" She snapped.

"Who're you talking to?" The Doctor asked suspiciously, stepping into the room.

Rose turned slightly pink, but glared. "No one!" She snapped, before stomping from the room.

This went on for longer than either was comfortable with, but both were too stubborn to do anything to fix it. The Doctor refused to apologize to Rose, and Rose refused to apologize to the Doctor. Not that he wanted an apology; no, he just wanted information. Information he _knew_ Rose couldn't give him.

It was all rather irritating.

Eventually, the Doctor suggested a trip to the year 200,000, hoping that getting out of the TARDIS would calm them both down. Of course, things were never that easy.

They hadn't been on the space station for very long before both were frowning in confusion. "Something's wrong, here…" Rose muttered.

"And why do you know that?" The Doctor whispered back.

She glared at him. "Shove off."

The studiously ignored each other as they investigated, preferring to speak to two women, Cathica and Suki, than each other. Through these two, they were able to see how information was processed on Satellite five, and realize just how wrong the place was.

"Ninety years," Rose murmured, staring at the light streaming into Cathica's (very visible) brain. "Who could manage to screw up human history by ninety years?"

"I don't know. I don't like it," the Doctor muttered in response; both of them, for the time being, forgetting that they were meant to be mad at the other.

Their conversation was cut off when a loud speaker announced that Suki had been promoted to Floor Five Hundred.

They glanced at each other. "Floor Five Hundred…seems to be a pretty big deal, huh?" The Doctor asked quietly.

Rose nodded. "Let's see Suki off; see if we can't learn anything more about it."

* * *

They waved a final goodbye to Suki as the lift doors closed.

"Good riddance," Cathica muttered, turning away.

Rose raised an eyebrow, as did the Doctor. "You're acting as if you'll never see her again," the Doctor commented, keeping the curious tone out of his voice.

"She's only going upstairs," Rose agreed.

Cathica looked between them, the look on her face obviously showing she was beginning to question if they were really management or not. "We won't. Once you go to Floor Five Hundred, you never come back."

Rose and the Doctor glanced at each other, then to the lift doors.

"Have you ever been up there?" Rose asked, still studying the doors, as if they would give her all the answers.

Cathica shook her head. "No. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to Five Hundred except for the chosen few," the last part was muttered in obvious bitterness.

"Let's talk somewhere quieter," the Doctor suggested after a moment, glancing at the other humans wandering around. He gestured for them to follow him into the spike room they'd only just left. Cathica grumbled as she followed, but Rose came silently, still trying to puzzle everything out.

"Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance, can't you give it a rest?" Cathica complained as the Doctor settled himself into the chair. Rose leaned against a wall on the other side of the room, watching carefully.

"But you've never been to another floor? Not even one floor down?" The Doctor persisted.

"I went to floor 16 when I first arrived, that's medical, that's when I got my head done, and then I - I came straight here. Satellite Five - you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all." She paused, and looked between them again, studying them. "You're not management, are you?" She asked at last, glaring at them.

"Was starting to wonder if you were going to figure that out," Rose commented with a slight smile.

Cathica glared. "Well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything!"

"Don't you even ask?" Rose asked, pushing off of the wall and coming closer to Cathica. The Doctor stayed in his chair, watching quietly, his eyes glued to Rose.

"Well why _would_ I?" Cathica asked impatiently.

"Because you're a journalist!" Rose said in exasperation, throwing her hands into the air. "Whatever happened to investigative journalism, huh? Asking questions, getting to the bottom of things?"

"Yes, what did happen to that?" The Doctor asked quietly, staring at Rose. Rose whirled to face him, and the two stared each other down for a moment. Finally, Rose made a sound of annoyance, and stalked back over to lean against the wall. Cathica watched with a look of bemusement.

"Why's all the crew human?" The Doctor asked abruptly, turning to face Cathica again.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Cathica asked, sounding a bit surprised at the sudden line of questioning.

There's no aliens on board. Why?" The Doctor persisted.

I don't know - no real reason, they're not banned or anything…" Cathica shrugged, though she sounded unsure.

The Doctor looked around the room theatrically, and Rose rolled her eyes. Always had to make a production of things, he did. "Then where are they" The Doctor asked, eyes on Cathica once more.

"I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what, with all the threats," she muttered, not quite making eye contact with the Doctor anymore.

"What threats?" Rose asked, joining the conversation again.

Cathica glanced at Rose, then at the Doctor, then looked down, biting her lip. "I don't know... all of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away..." she trailed off, as if even she was having a hard time believing what she was saying anymore. "Oh, and the government on Traffic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see... just... lots of little reasons, that's all."

"Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice," the Doctor finished, a bit smugly in Rose's opinion.

"Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything," Cathica said, apparently trying to find some faith in her work and company again.

"I can see better. This society's the wrong shape. Even the technology," the Doctor said, shaking his head.

"It's cutting edge!" Cathica exclaimed in annoycance.

"It's backward! There's a great big door in your head! You should've chucked this out years ago," The Doctor argued right back.

"So the question is, what's going on here?" Rose said to no one in particular, looking at the ceiling.

"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude," the Doctor mused, glancing around before his eyes landed on Cathica. "It's the way people think. The great and bountiful human empire's stunted. Something's holding it back."

"And how would _you_ know?" Cathica demanded, her hands on her hips as she glared.

"Trust us. Humanity's been set back about 90 years - when did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"

Cathica paused, unease flitting across her face for a moment. "Ninety-one years ago…" she muttered.

"Exactly," Rose sighed, and Cathica looked away. "We need to do some more snooping," Rose added, looking at the Doctor. He nodded, his face blank, and stood from the chair.

"I saw a door a little ways back, I'd like to see what's behind it," he stated, leading the way from the room, Rose and Cathica (though Cathica looked a bit unwilling) following.

"Are you two having some sort of lovers' spat?" Cathica asked Rose quietly as they trailed along behind the Doctor.

Rose blinked, and glanced at her. "Now you want to ask questions?" She muttered, keeping her voice as low as Cathica's. She sighed, and shook her head. "We're having something of a…disagreement, yes. But we're not lovers," she added.

"Oh," Cathica muttered, having the grace to look slightly embarrassed, "I just assumed-"

"Yeah, a lot of people do," Rose sighed, shaking her head.

"Here we are, then," the Doctor announced, before he started sonicing a door.

Behind the door the mainframe was housed, and it didn't take long for the Doctor to brake in; though Rose was pretty sure he would have gotten in a lot faster if he hadn't been trying to calm Cathica down while he worked.

Cathica, of course, informed them as frequently as possible that they were going to get in trouble, no one was allowed to touch the mainframe, and—if they got caught—they had better leave her out of this. For some reason, though, she didn't just walk off. Not, at least, until Rose and the Doctor were in the lift headed for Floor Five Hundred. Cathica decided not to accompany them for that part.

The lift ride up was quiet, and the uncomfortable silence that had prevailed in the TARDIS seemed to have followed them here.

"I don't suppose you have a plan?" Rose asked, eventually, when they were very close to their destination.

"Nope," the Doctor responded, his eyes glued to the rising numbers.

Rose sighed. "Then I can already guess how this is going to end," she muttered.

* * *

"Called it," Rose muttered a little while later, when she and the Doctor had been strapped side by side into manacles.

"Hush," the Doctor muttered, his eyes on the editor.

"If we create a climate of fear... then it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilize an economy... invent an enemy... change a vote..." the Editor was saying, looking far too pleased with himself.

"So all the people on Earth are basically slaves," Rose commented.

"Well, now. There's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?" the Editor asked with a smile and a shrug.

"Yes," the Doctor responded angrily.

"Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? 'Yes?'"

"Yes."

The Editor laughed. "You're no fun."

"Let me out of these manacles - you'll find out how much fun I am," the Doctor growled.

"Oh, he's tough, isn't he?" the Editor asked Rose, whose only response was to glare. "But, come on," he added, turning back to the Doctor, "isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit." He held up thumb and forefinger to demonstrate.

"You can't hide something on this scale," Rose interrupted. "Someone must've noticed."

"From time to time, someone, yes," the Editor allowed, shrugging. "But the computer system allows me to see inside their brain... I can see the smallest doubt - and crush it," he grinned sadistically, making a fist with one hand as if to demonstrate. "And then they just carry on, living their life. Strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're _so _individual." He shook his head, like an amused parent. Rose decided she hated him. "When of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."

Rose noticed Cathica peering into the room from the corner of her eye, and tried to keep the Editor focused on herself and the Doctor. "Well, what about you? You're not a Jagrafess. You're human. You couldn't have done all of this on your own," she pointed out.

"No! I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to um... install himself," the Editor explained, then smiled.

"No wonder, a creature of that size," the Doctor commented, and Rose knew he was trying to keep the Editor from noticing Cathica, too. "What's his life span?" he asked curiously.

"Three thousand years."

"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs - Jagrafess stays cool - stays alive. Satellite Five's one great big life support system," the Doctor commented idly, almost sounding bored. Rose bit back a smirk; she knew what he was doing.

"But _that's_ why you're so dangerous. Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown," the Editor murmured, drawing closer to the two of them, his eyes darting between their faces. He clicked his fingers, and Rose tightened her jaw as an electric current ran through the manacles, and into them. "Who are you?" He demanded.

The Doctor groaned. "Leave her alone," he said, and Rose glanced at him, annoyed and amused at the same time. "I'm the Doctor and she's Rose Tyler," he continued. "We're no one, we're just wandering."

"Tell me who you are!" The Editor yelled.

"I just said!" The Doctor retorted angrily.

"Yeah, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly are you?" The Editor growled, then snapped his fingers again, sending the current through them again. Rose closed her eyes, and bit her lip, refusing to make a sound. She tasted blood.

"We don't work for anyone, no one knows about you! Because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughter house if they're told it's made of gold," the Doctor growled, his voice pained. Rose opened one eye just long enough to see Cathica leave the little corner of the room she'd been occupying. Rose just hoped she got the Doctor's message.

The Editor laughed. "Yes, I suppose you're right. Still, though, you two are a liability. And as much as I'd love to keep you around," he ran one finger down the side of Rose's face; she jerked, trying to bite him. He quickly moved his hand away, frowning. "I'm afraid we can't take the risk," he finished.

He stepped away from them, apparently intending for the Jagrefess to take care of them. Rose closed her eyes, focusing, just in case Cathica didn't come through.

An alarm sounded, and Rose sighed with relief, opening her eyes and letting herself settle back down. "What's happening?" The Editor barked, leaning over the puppets to check a computer monitor. "Someone's disengaged the safety," he muttered, and snapped his fingers. The monitor showed Cathica, the blue beam of information going into her brain. "Who's that?" he snapped.

"It's Cathica," Rose sighed, sagging slightly in the manacles.

"And she's thinking," the Doctor said gleefully. "She's using what she knows!"

"Terminate access," the Editor ordered the dead Suki.

"Everything I told her about Satellite Five - the pipes - the filters - she's reversing it! Look at that..." the Doctor paused, and a drip of water landed on Rose's nose. She looked up, and smiled, watching the icicles start to melt. "It's getting hot," the Doctor grinned.

"I said, terminate!" The Editor yelled. He put his hands over Suki's on the controller. "Burn her mind," he hissed.

The Cathica on screen said something, they couldn't hear over all the other noise, and then the screens all exploded, and the drones fell over, officially dead. Rose dropped as her manacles released her. She rubbed her wrists for a moment, then shoved her hand into the Doctor's coat pocket.

"Oi, easy!" He complained.

"Hush," she muttered, pulling out the screwdriver. She clicked through the settings, then pointed at the manacles.

"She's venting the heat up here. The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano," the Doctor commented as Rose worked.

"Thanks for the play by play, Doctor, but we should probably leave now," Rose said, handing him back the sonic after his manacles fell off.

"Right, right," he muttered, shoving the screwdriver back into his pocket. He looked over at the Editor, who was running around frantically, trying to fix everything. "Oi, mate—wanna bank on a certainty? Massive heat in a massive body. Massive bang!" The Doctor yelled, making the Editor look at him worriedly. The Doctor grinned. "See you in the headlines!"

* * *

They were back down in the canteen, sitting in front of the TARDIS, with Cathica. The Jagrafress had exploded, taking the Editor with it, and now humanity should be able to catch up to where it should be.

"We're just gonna go," the Doctor was saying. "I hate tidying up. Too many questions. You'll manage."

"You'll have to stay and explain it—no-one's gonna believe me!" Cathica argued.

"Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now. The Human Race should accelerate. All back to normal," Rose explained with a smile.

Cathica reluctantly agreed, and left, leaving Rose and the Doctor alone. "We should go," Rose said, quietly, after a moment.

The Doctor nodded, and motioned for her to lead. Rose unlocked the TARDIS and stepped inside, habitually rubbing a wall in greeting.

"Rose," the Doctor called, making her turn to face him. He was watching her with his serious face; all hard eyed, with the corners of his mouth down turned. He had that look in every regeneration she'd met, and she always hated it. He looked like was trying to see through you when he got that look. "I want to trust you," he started, and Rose jumped in.

"Then do it. Stop making it so hard for yourself," she snapped.

He glared at her. "It's hard to trust someone who has so many secrets!"

Rose scoffed. "Please, that's the pot calling the kettle black if I ever heard it. You have more secrets than anyone I've ever met. You've shared a few with me over the years," the Doctor looked surprised at that, "but not all of them. You know why I can't tell you my secrets," she added, a bit more gently.

The Doctor scrubbed his head in agitation. "There has to be something you can tell me. Something small; something that makes you just a little less confusing to me," he pleaded.

Rose stared at him for a moment, before going through her memories, trying to figure out what the Doctor had known about her before she'd mentioned it.

"Alright," she said slowly, making a mental list of things that were okay to tell him. "You've pretty much already figured out I'm telepathic," the Doctor nodded, eyes glued to her. "I'm…older…than I look," she said hesitantly, pausing to make sure she didn't feel a paradox coming.

"How old are you?" the Doctor asked curiously, moving away from the console to lean against the wall next to her.

"About…one hundred and six, I believe," Rose said, counting in her head to make sure she was right. "Yeah, that's right. I can't tell you why I don't age, so don't bother," she added, seeing the question in his face. "I'm not…human, I don't think. That one's a bit more…difficult," she frowned, then shook her head. "This whole thing is confusing," she admitted.

"Try getting it from my end," the Doctor muttered, and Rose laughed. The Doctor smiled at her, and she sighed.

"That's all I can tell you right now…there might be others later, but for now…that's it." She paused for a moment, looking at his slightly disappointed face. "You can trust me, Doctor," she said seriously. "I know it doesn't feel like it right now…but you can." She smiled, and moved away from the hall, heading for the kitchen.

"One more question?" The Doctor called. Rose turned back to him and motioned for him to go ahead. "What's our relationship like, in the future?"

Rose grinned. "We're friends. The best of friends." And with that, she went to find something to eat.

* * *

**I'm sorry for the delay, again...Still have the baby _ **

**I actually almost didn't do this episode at all, because I couldn't see how anything would change. But then I figured I could use it to show Rose and the Doctor's relationship a bit more. Tell me what you think?**

**Thanks to everyone who Followed, Favorited, and Reviewed!**

**Until Next Time!**


	6. Chapter 6

It took them a little while, but Rose and the Doctor finally managed to get back on friendly terms. It was no secret between them that the Doctor was still having a hard time trusting Rose completely, but they both tried to ignore this, if only so that they could live in relative harmony together.

"What color is the alarm?" Rose shouted one day, running into the console room. A blaring alarm, loud enough to be heard in other rooms of the infinite ship, was sounding, and it was what had sent Rose running from the library (and nearly tripping into the pool. Honestly, why _anyone_ thought that the library was a good place for a pool, she would never know) and to the console room.

"It's mauve!" The Doctor called, sounding excited. "I hacked the TARDIS into its flight computer and slaved the TARDIS—where it goes, we go!"

Rose grabbed a rail, eyes going wide. "Oh, this is not going to be a fun ride," she muttered.

"Oi! It's perfectly safe!" The Doctor protested just as one of the panels of the console exploded in a shower of sparks. He glanced at it, then grabbed a firm hold on the railing next to her. "Well, reasonably safe," he admitted sheepishly.

Another alarm sounded (accompanied by another shower of sparks, but apparently they were ignoring those now) and the Doctor ran (more like stumbled, the TARDIS wasn't so stable at the moment) to the console. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no! It's jumping time tracks—getting away from us!" He shouted, desperately shoving levers and buttons, trying to keep with whatever it was they were following. Speaking of which…

"Do we know what it is that we're following yet?" Rose yelled over the alarms and bursts of sparks.

"No idea!" The Doctor called cheerfully. Rose winced. That particular brand of cheerfulness was usually followed by a crash landing. "But it's mauve and dangerous, and about thirty seconds from the center of London!"

"Geronimo," Rose muttered to herself, and gripped the rail tighter, preparing for impact. The Doctor just laughed maniacally, as he was wont to do.

The landing actually wasn't as bad as she'd expected, though it did still manage to knock her to the ground. She groaned, sitting back up, and saw that the Doctor was already half way out the door. "Not even going to check what year it is?" She called after him, then groaned again, and dragged herself to her feet. "Always does this," she muttered to herself, dusting herself off before going to the door. "It's fine, Rose. Perfectly safe, Rose! Just Earth, Rose. What could possibly happen, Rose? Right. Next thing you know, I'm in jail for indecent exposure and he's about to be hung for witchcraft. Perfectly safe my—"

"Did you say something?" The Doctor asked as Rose stepped outside the TARDIS, still muttering to herself.

"Who, me? Nope, not a word!" Rose said innocently, smiling at the Doctor.

He narrowed his eyes, looking at her for a moment. "Right…anyway…" he muttered, turning away from her slowly to look around. They'd landed in an alley between two brick buildings, and there were bits of trash everywhere. "Must have come down somewhere quite close. Within a mile, anyway. And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago. Maybe a month…" he mused, looking around.

Rose raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Right behind it like we were and you managed to let it get a month ahead of us?"

"It was jumping time tracks all over the place, we're bound to be a little bit out!" The Doctor defended, pouting (_'Time Lords don't pout, Rose!' _Please.) "Do _you_ wanna drive?" He snapped, when she remained unimpressed. "Don't answer that!" He added quickly when she opened her mouth to answer.

Rose smirked. "So then, what's the plan?" She asked, squinting in the darkness to try and see more of the street at the mouth of the alley. It was strangely quiet; she didn't like it.

"I'll just pop in here for a mo' and ask if anyone's heard a big bang, nothing to it," The Doctor shrugged, moving towards a door.

"You know it would probably be a lot easier and not raise nearly as many questions if you just did a scan for alien tech," Rose called, leaning against the TARDIS as the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver to open the door.

The Doctor scoffed. "It's London, how often are they going to get a big boom like that? This way is faster."

"Care to make a bet on that?" Rose grinned. The Doctor looked at her curiously, pausing for the moment with the door. "Tell you what: you do it your way, I'll do it mine. Whoever gets to the thing first, wins. Winner picks the next place we go. Deal?" She asked, holding out her hand.

The Doctor considered her for a moment, then grinned, and took her hand. "Deal," he agreed, shaking it and moving back to the door. "And I don't want to hear any of your whining when I win!" He called, shoving the door open.

"Uh huh," Rose called carelessly, going back into the TARDIS.

'_That man is going to be the death of me. Honestly! Nearly nine hundred years now, you'd think he'd have learned to drive!'_ The TARDIS complained as Rose went to the console.

Rose smiled, biting back a laugh as she began to turn on the scanners. _'I'll try and step in next time, but you know how he gets when someone else tries to drive,'_ Rose soothed. The TARDIS hummed in slight annoyance, but calmed down after that.

Rose stroked the console idly as she waited for the scanners to pick up on alien tech, making idle conversation with the TARDIS; they couldn't really talk much when the Doctor was around because he could sort of sense the psychic waves that was Rose's and the TARDIS' conversation, and that made him ask questions; questions that Rose couldn't answer yet.

The scanner _pinged!_ Jerking Rose from her conversation as she poured over the results. "So much easier than talking to people!" She grinned, memorizing the map in front of her before running off, calling a farewell to the TARDIS as she shut the door. She was just walking away when she heard the phone start to ring.

"What?" She muttered, turning back to the TARDIS. And, indeed, the phone in the box on the front, the phone that wasn't connected to anything, was ringing.

Rose slowly approached the TARDIS, and pulled open the door that covered the phone. "How are you ringing?" She muttered, and reached for the phone.

"Don't answer it. That's not for you," a voice behind her called.

Rose spun around, and looked at the girl who'd called to her. She wore her hair in two braids, and was wearing a slightly grungy dress, but looked clean overall. There was a hardness in her face as well, but fear in her eyes. "And how would you know that?" Rose asked slowly after a moment.

"'Cos I do, and I'm telling ya—don't answer it," the girl said simply; but Rose could hear the fear in her voice. Something was going on here…

"What's got you so scared?" She asked quietly. She turned to glance at the still ringing phone. "S' just a—" but by the time she turned around, the girl was gone. Rose frowned. "Phone," she finished, and sighed. She turned to face the phone again, eyeing for a moment before picking it up.

"Hello?" She asked warily.

"Mummy?" a voice on the other end said. Something about the voice raised goose bumps on Rose's arms.

"Who is this?" She demanded, keeping her voice level.

"Are you my mummy?" The voice insists.

"How are you calling this number? Shouldn't even have a number! S'not a real phone…" Rose muttered, glancing around her now as a chill crept up her spine.

"Mummy?" The voice asked again, right before the line went dead.

Rose replaced the phone in the cradle, and rubbed her arms. "Right. Never answering the phone again. Why I did that in the first place…" she muttered, shaking her head and walking out onto the street.

She glanced at her watch (which she may or may not have stolen from the Doctor) and winced. "World War II. Why is it _always_ World War II?" She muttered, turning her eyes skyward to see the barrage balloons. "Right-o, better get moving before a bomb drops on my head…" she muttered, then frowned. "And I should really stop talking to myself."

She hurried down the streets, moving in the direction of the crash site, and ignoring the alarms that announced an air raid. She was almost to the crash site, and the bombing was a good enough distance behind her that she felt safe.

As she drew closer to the crash site, she realized it was in front of a hospital, and winced. "Not a good place to park, mate," she muttered.

"I'll keep that in mind next time," a familiar voice answered, sounding amused.

Rose spun around, eyebrows rising and smile blossoming on her face. "Jack? What're you doing here?" She asked once she saw that it really was him.

He was leaning against a tree, still wearing the World War II coat (though, for once, it actually made him blend in), and still wearing that flirty grin. Though it faded a bit as she spoke, and was replaced with a frown of confusion.

"I never forget a face, especially one as pretty as yours"—Rose snorted—"and I'm positive I've never seen yours before," he said, raising an eyebrow in an unasked question.

Rose, for her part, groaned. "Can't I meet anybody in the right order?" She muttered, then shook her head. "Ah, so, let's see... you're in 1941, so obviously you've started time travel..." she muttered, trying to figure out just where Jack was in his time line. "So you should be used to the little…inconsistencies it tends to cause. I meet you in my past. Your future. Though, apparently we're meeting now. Why people can't just _tell_ me these things," she growled skyward, as if the Jack Harkness that she knew would be able to hear her and understand her annoyance, "I'll never know."

"You're a little bit crazy," Jack commented, but the grin had returned to his face.

"Trust me; live my life for a little bit, and you would be to," Rose retorted. She moved to the gate that surrounded the hospital and the crash site, Jack following.

"So what is our relationship in the future, exactly?" He asked, standing behind her and _far to close_. "You haven't slapped me yet, so I'm taking that as a good sign," he added, one of his hands landing on her hip.

Rose snorted (and, though she couldn't see it, Jack made a face of pure disbelief). "You're basically my brother. So hands off, brother dearest, or I'll remove them."

Rose heard a bit of grumbling, but the hand left her hip, and Jack moved to stand beside her.

"So, what are you, Time Agency?" Jack asked, sounding a bit more businesslike (as businesslike as Jack could get, which is to say, only slightly less flirty).

"Nah. Too much like work," Rose dismissed distractedly as she looked the fence over for a way in. She found the gate, and pulled a hair pin from her hair, and set to work picking the lock.

"A time traveler not from the agency, I like it," Jack grinned, watching her pick the lock. "Tell you what: I've got a Chula Warship just in there that I'll sell you. Last one in existence, great condition. Armed to the teeth. Name the right price and it's all yours."

Rose paused in her lock picking to look Jack over. "Where to begin?" She mused. "I suppose with the armed to the teeth bit: I don't like weapons. On to the warship part: not interested in wars, got my own ship. As for the Chula origins? I call bullshit." She smiled sweetly at him and, with one final twist of her hair pin, the lock popped off of the chains, and dropped to the ground.

"Would your brother lie to you?" Jack called, following her through the gate.

"Nope. But you might," Rose called lightly, not even bothering to turn to him.

"That was just cruel!"

Rose thew a grin over her shoulder, and checked her watch. "Alright, Doctor, I win. Now please don't make me wait too long for you," she muttered to herself, glancing around to make sure he wasn't already there.

"Look, even if you're not interested in the warship or the weapons, doesn't mean you can't sell it to someone who is!" Jack said as he caught up with her. "Buy off of me for a good deal, sell it to someone else, make a quick buck! All I know is I've got to get this thing off my hands."

Rose looked at him suspiciously. "You are far too eager to sell this thing," she informed him.

Jack shrugged innocently. "What can I say? I've already got a ship, don't need two. And I need the cash besides; I owe money to some guys on Atrexi 3."

Rose watched him for a few minutes longer. "I could always tell when you were lying, you know," she said softly. "You didn't lie very often, of course, but I could always tell. Still can, even now." Jack seemed a bit uncomfortable, but Rose carried on. "You never told me what you did after you left the Agency, or how you met the Doctor. You mentioned once you weren't proud of it. I guess that's where we are in your time stream."

Jack stared at her for a long moment, all traces of teasing and flirting gone from his face. He seemed almost disgruntled with her analysis of him, and not at all sure how to respond. "What's your name?" He asked at last.

"Rose Tyler," she answered, then looked past him with a slight grin. "And this is the Doctor, who has just lost a bet to me!" She called, watching the Doctor as he approached. He looked none too pleased when he caught sight of Jack.

"Who's this then?" The Doctor asked by way of greeting.

Jack grinned and held out his hand. "Captain Jack Harkness," he said with far more flirtation than was necessary.

"Stop it," Rose warned.

"I'm just saying hello!" Jack protested.

"It's never just 'hello' with you, is it though?" Rose said dryly, shaking her head.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Jack? As in Slith—"

"Hasn't happened to him yet!" Rose interrupted. "This is the first time he's met me."

The Doctor shook his head. "You've got a real knack for this, you know?" He informed her.

"Tell me about it," Rose muttered.

"Don't suppose you'd like to buy a Chula Warship?" Jack asked the Doctor.

"Not now Jack. So then! The crash, nothing big, just himself here," she motioned to Jack, "trying to make a buck. So! I get to choose the next place, right? I was thinking Raxacon…"

"I've got some other things I want to check out first," the Doctor interrupted. "Something weird is happening around here. Did you have any trouble from a kid in a gas mask on your way over? Likes to ask people if they're his mummy?"

Rose frowned. "Um, well, I never saw him, but the phone on the TARDIS rang, don't ask me how, and there was a child asking for his mummy. Something about him was…off…" she added, shivering a bit at the memory.

"Exactly. I met this girl, Nancy; she told me to go in there," he motioned to the hospital, "and talk to the Doctor. Care to join me?" He asked, offering his hand to Rose with a grin.

Rose smiled and took the offered hand. "Love to!" They set off for the hospital, but Rose paused to glance back at Jack. "Coming?" She called. She missed Jack, and though this one much different from her own, he was still fundamentally the same; she just couldn't miss the opportunity to spend some time with him.

Jack followed along, though he seemed slightly reluctant. The Doctor didn't seem too pleased with her invitation, either.

Inside the hospital, there were hundreds and hundreds of patients, all wearing gasmasks, and all apparently dead. They all gave Rose the same creeping feeling that the voice of the child had, and she unconsciously moved a bit closer to the Doctor.

They were in one of the wards, again filled with cot upon cot of the masked patients, when they found the doctor Nancy had told them to find. Or, rather, he found them.

"You'll find them everywhere; every bed in every ward. Hundreds of them," the old man said as he came into the room, making the other three turn to face him. Rose eyed him warily; something about him was off, too; though not as badly as the ones in the masks. Still, something about him just didn't sit right with her.

"Yes, we saw," the Doctor answered, a bit more politely than usual.

"Why are they still wearing gasmasks?" Jack asked curiously, turning to look at one of the patients again.

"They're not," the man answered simply. Jack, Rose, and the Doctor exchanged a look. "Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm, uh…" the Doctor trailed off for a moment, before deciding against answering the question. "Are you the Doctor?" He asked instead.

The man nodded. "Doctor Constantine. And you are?" He persisted.

"I'm Rose, he's the Doctor, and this is Jack. Nancy sent us," Rose replied.

"Nancy? That means you must've been asking about the bomb," Constantine sighed.

"Yes," the Doctor answered, watching Constantine closely now.

"What do you know about it?"

"Nothing," Rose lied, casting a quick glance at Jack.

"Why we were asking," the Doctor shrugged. "What do you know?"

"Only what it's done," Constantine said sadly.

"These people…were they all caught in the blast?" Jack asked quietly. Rose thought she could see some sadness and guilt in his eyes, though the rest of his face was blank.

"None of them were," Constantine laughed humorlessly, before beginning to cough violently. He sat down in a chair that was behind him, and pulled out a handkerchief. Rose stepped forward worriedly, but maintained her distance when Constantine waved her off. She glanced at Jack instead; who she was glad to see looked relieved at knowing he hadn't killed all these people.

"You're very sick," the Doctor said quietly, drawing Rose's attention back to Constantine.

"Dying, I should think," he said unconcernedly. "I just haven't been able to find the time." Rose smiled sadly; he had a wonderfully dry sense of humor: it was a shame his life was drawing to a close. "You said you were a doctor?" Constantine asked the Doctor.

"I have my moments," the Doctor shrugged.

"Have you examined any of them yet?" Constantine asked. The Doctor shook his head no. "Don't touch the flesh," Constantine warned.

"Which one?" The Doctor asked, reaching into his pocket for his sonic screwdriver.

"_Any_one."

"We'll be right back," Rose muttered, pulling Jack from the room. She moved a bit down the hall, then turned to face Jack. "I saw that look you had back there; didn't you check to see if there was anyone nearby before you 'parked?'" She asked angrily.

"I did, and I was pretty sure it was empty," Jack said quickly. "But I was jumping time tracks a lot, trying to keep you and leather-jacket back there from getting here too early, so it was hard to be positive. Assuming that was you two following me. Love the retro look, by the way," he added, trying to soothe her a bit.

Rose was unimpressed. "That was reckless, Jack! Someone could've been hurt! And why? Just so you could make a quick buck?"

"Well what do you lot do for money, then, huh?" He demanded angrily. "I'm just trying to get by, okay sister? So get off your damn high horse!"

Rose glared at him, furious that he wasn't taking this as seriously as she thought he should. There was also something deeply unsettling about this; Jack, her Jack, had never raised his voice at her, never cursed at her. "I can see where I made my mistake," she said stiffly, after a long moment of silence. "I was expecting you to be the Jack I knew. Clearly, you have a lot of growing up to do yet."

Jack and Rose had something of a glaring contest after that, though it seemed to Rose that Jack's glare had lost some of its former potency. They were interrupted when the Doctor came out into the hall, and made a beeline for Jack. "You! What kind of ship did you say you had again?" The Doctor demanded.

"Where's Constantine?" Rose asked, tearing her eyes away from Jack.

"He's one of them now," the Doctor responded tersely. At their questioning looks, he led them back into the ward, where Dr. Constantine was slumped in his chair, a gasmask on his face. "Scan him, go on," the Doctor instructed Jack.

Jack complied after a moment of hesitation, while Rose shivered again, and stepped closer to the Doctor. "You can sense them, can't you?" The Doctor asked her quietly.

Rose glanced at him, then at the others in the room. "Yeah, I mean, sort of. They just feel…wrong, y'know? Sort of…empty," she shivered again. She looked up at him. "Can't you feel it?" He shook his head no.

"This isn't possible," Jack muttered, looking at his vortex manipulator, which he had used to scan Constantine. He moved to one of the other cots, and scanned the body there. "This is _not_ possible!" He insisted. He looked up at the Doctor and Rose. "They're the same. All of them; exactly the same! Gasmask fused to the face, concaved chest cavity, head trauma, even the scar on the back of the hand; all the same! And they're _alive!_ How could this happen?"

"What kind of Chula ship landed here?" The Doctor asked again.

"What does it matter?" Jack asked, distracted as he looked at the patients again.

"He said it was a warship," Rose offered.

"What kind of warship?" The Doctor demanded.

"It's got nothing to do with this!" Jack said in agitation, turning to face the Doctor now.

"It's got everything to do with this!" The Doctor snapped. "This," he motioned to the room as a whole, "all started at the bomb site! _What kind of warship_?"

"An ambulance!" Jack shouted, then flicked a switch on his vortex manipulator. "Look," he muttered, as a hologram of the ship appeared above his wrist. "That's what you chased through the Time Vortex. It's space junk. I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it," he added, glancing at Rose. "Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you."

"Bait," Rose said quietly. "You wanted to sell it to us and disappear before we knew it was junk."

"Well, not disappear, per say…there's a bomb that's going to land there in about two hours. It would have destroyed it before you knew it was junk," Jack said, sounding a bit guilty. "It was a con. I was conning you—that's what I am, I'm a con man." Maybe Rose was just hearing what she wanted to hear, but she thought she detected a bit of self-loathing in that last statement. "Anyway, whatever's going on out there has nothing to do with that ship."

"But what is happening here?" Rose murmured, walking to one of the beds to look down into the vacant, glass eyes of the gasmask. "A virus that's rewriting human DNA?"

"And badly, at that," the Doctor added. "But the real question is: why?"

Rose leaned over a bit further to look at where the latex of the mask met the hair of the person wearing it (growing it?), but the man sat up suddenly, making Rose jump back. She backed up to the Doctor and Jack, eyes widening as she saw that all the other patients were sitting up as well, and staring at the three of them.

"Mummy?" The gasmask zombies said as one. "Are you my mummy?"

"Doctor…" Rose said fearfully, looking around at all the blank eyes.

"Don't let them touch you," the Doctor said firmly, his eyes darting around the room as the gasmask zombies rose from their beds and started walking towards them.

"What happens if they touch us?" Jack asked, backing up until his back touched a wall.

Rose and the Doctor moved with them, until they were all trapped against the wall, the gasmask people closing in, and still chanting "mummy." "We become like them."

* * *

**This whole rewriting episodes thing is harder than I thought it would be.**

**Thanks to ocean-of-ink for the wonderful cover art, which is "Life Cycle" in Circular Galifreyan!**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed; especially to my Guest reviewers, since I can't respond to you like I can everyone else.**

**Thanks also to everyone who followed and favorited!**

**Until next time!**


	7. Chapter 7

"_Don't let them touch you," the Doctor said firmly, his eyes darting around the room as the gasmask zombies rose from their beds and started walking towards them._

"_What happens if they touch us?" Jack asked, backing up until his back touched a wall._

_Rose and the Doctor moved with them, until they were all trapped against the wall, the gasmask people closing in, and still chanting "mummy." "We become like them."_

The Doctor tried to back up further, to put more space between himself and the gasmask people, but he and the others were already pressed against the wall with nowhere else to go. He threw his arm up in front of Rose automatically, as if to shield her from the oncoming attack. Rose, however, pushed his arm out of the way and stepped forward, her face drawn into a look of annoyance.

"Go to your room!" She shouted at the gasmask people. The Doctor stared at her, wondering how exactly he'd missed the fact that this woman was crazy. He'd only been traveling with her for a few days, but still: insanity had a way of making itself known.

But to the Doctor's surprise (and Jack's, too, if the muttered "The hell?" was anything to go off of), the gasmask people stopped their advance. They didn't retreat, but they didn't come any closer either.

"Go to your room!" Rose repeated. The Doctor glanced at Jack to see if he knew what was going on, but Jack just shrugged. "I mean it! I am very, very angry with you," Rose scolded, hands on her hips now, like an angry mother. "I am very, very cross! Go to your room!"

Slowly, the gasmask people all turned around and shuffled back towards their beds. Jack let out a startled laugh, and the Doctor shook his head. Rose slumped a little bit, apparently relieved. "Glad that worked," the Doctor mused, watching as the gasmask people lay back down on their beds. He glanced at Rose. "Those would have been terrible last words," he informed her. Rose attempted to glare at him, but just ended up laughing.

Slowly, the three of them moved away from the wall, and checked to make sure the gasmask people weren't going to get back up. Satisfied that they were going to remain stationary, at least for now, the Doctor turned to Jack.

"So how was your con supposed to work?" He asked, his voice hard. He didn't trust this man. He may be the one to someday save them on Downing Street, but so far he seemed like a self-absorbed conman who couldn't be trusted.

"Simple enough, really," Jack shrugged carelessly. "Find some harmless piece of space-junk... let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth. Convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put fifty percent up front – oops!" Jack smiled slightly. "A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for. Never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money, and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."

"Yeah, perfect," Rose muttered from the other side of the room, where she was carefully examining one of the patients. The Doctor watched her for a moment, before looking back to Jack.

"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners; Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day," Jack laughed. The Doctor just stared at him until his laughter died away. Yeah, he definitely didn't like this Jack. He glanced at Rose, wondering why she would chose to consort with someone like this.

"Getting a hint of disapproval here," Jack said after an awkward silence.

"Take a look around the room," the Doctor said darkly, glaring at Jack. "This is what your 'harmless piece of space-junk' did."

Jack glared back now, apparently about as fond of the Doctor as the Doctor was of him. "It was a burnt out medical transporter—it was empty," he said slowly, trying to keep his temper under control.

They glared at each other for a moment before the Doctor turned away, walking towards Rose. "Rose," he said, getting her attention.

"We getting out of here? I don't know if the room trick will work again, and I don't fancy growing a permanent gasmask," she commented lightly.

"We're going upstairs," the Doctor said, sparing a small smile for the blonde.

Jack followed as they left the room and made their way up the staircase, still trying to plead his case.

"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living—I harmed no one! I don't know what's happening here, but believe me: I had nothing to do with it!" He exclaimed in agitation.

"I'll tell you what's happening. You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day," the Doctor muttered.

An alarm sounded in the distance, making them all pause for a moment. "The all clear," Jack commented.

"I wish," the Doctor muttered, and kept going.

"So where are we going?" Rose asked, a bit loudly. The Doctor got the distinct impression she was trying to keep him and Jack from arguing further.

"Room 802," he said after a moment. "That's where Constantine said they took the first victim." They stopped outside a door, and the Doctor turned to Jack. "The night your space-junk landed someone was hurt," he informed him, glaring again. "This was where they were taken." He turned to the door again, and tried to open it; locked. He moved to reach for his sonic screwdriver, then paused, and turned to Jack. "Have you got a blaster?" He asked innocently.

"Sure!" Jack said, and pulled said blaster from his coat. The Doctor moved back to stand beside Rose as Jack aimed for the door.

"Any particular reason you're not using the screwdriver?" Rose whispered to him, watching as Jack put a square hole around the lock on the door, making it swing inwards

"Maybe," the Doctor whispered in response. He felt it was best to know exactly what it was they were dealing with when it came to Jack, just in case he turned on them. Which seemed likely, at this point.

He moved towards Jack to get a better look at the blaster. "51st century Sonic Blaster. Weapon Factories of Villengard?" He asked, eyes running over the weapon.

"You've been to the factories?" Jack asked, surprised.

The Doctor pulled the blaster out of Jack's hand to get a closer look. "Once," he commented with a shrug.

"Well, they're gone now. Destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vapourized the lot."

The Doctor grinned and handed the blaster back. "Like I said: once." And if his voice was a bit smug, who could blame him?

"That explains so much," Rose muttered. The Doctor and Jack turned to look at her. She shrugged. "What? There's a banana grove there now," she explained, looking pointedly at the Doctor.

He grinned. "I like bananas; bananas are good!" He said cheerfully. It still threw him for a loop every time she mentioned knowledge about him that he didn't remember giving her. It unnerved him a bit, really, to know that she knew so much about him, and yet he knew next to nothing about her. From what she said, though, it was the other way around when she'd first met him. He was looking forward to that.

He moved into the room, but he heard Rose and Jack stay back for a moment; he tried not to let that bother him. He tried even harder when he heard Rose laugh, and come in with a grinning Jack a moment later. Instead, he flipped a switch to turn the light on.

He appraised the room for a moment, silently impressed with the strength of whomever had been trapped in here; a window was broken, and there were things all over the floor. It was a mess, and looked like someone had been enraged when they did it.

"What do you think?" He asked the room at large.

"_Something_ got out of here," Jack observed.

The Doctor bit back the urge to sigh and roll his eyes. He felt like he did a bit too much of that as it was in this regeneration. "Yeah, and?" He prodded.

"Something powerful and angry," Rose murmured, moving past him and further into the room.

They followed her into the next room, which had toys and drawings thrown all over the place. Jack stooped to pick up a drawing which was clearly done by a child. "A child did this? I guess that explains the 'mummy.'"

Rose looked uncomfortable. "What happened to make the child be able to do this?" She whispered to herself.

The Doctor glanced around until he saw a tape, and flicked it on. Doctor Constantine's voice filled the room, drawing Rose and Jack's attention to the recording.

"Do you know where you are?" Dr. Constantine's voice asked.

"Are you my mummy?" The Doctor saw Rose shudder as the child's voice came off the recording.

"Are you aware of what's around you?" Dr. Constantine persisted. "Can you…see?"

"Are you my mummy?" The child's voice was more insistent now.

"What do you want?" Dr. Constantine's voice asked, a note of fear entering his voice. "Do you know—"

"I want my mummy," The Child's voice demanded. "Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy?"

"Doctor," Rose said uneasily, moving closer to him. "I've heard this voice before."

"Me, too," he responded, just as uneasy, but unwilling to show it.

"Mummy? Mummy?" The recording continued.

"Always 'Are you my mummy?'" Rose murmured, her hand slipping down into his. The Doctor gripped it firmly. "Like he doesn't know…"

"Mummy?"

"Why doesn't he know?" Rose whispered, frowning.

"Are you there mummy? Mummy?"

The Doctor let go of Rose's hand so he could pace; pacing helped him think. Or, at least, it helped him not to lash out in frustration. Mostly. He'd told Rose earlier that he couldn't sense them the way she did, but he could now. Which meant they were getting stronger. Which was bad, very, very bad. "Can you sense it?" He asked suddenly, turning his head to look at Jack.

"Sense what?"

"Coming out of the walls, can you feel it?" He insisted.

"Mummy?" The voice of the child was still going.

Jack shook his head no, and the Doctor paused in his pacing to consider him for a moment. "Funny little human brains, how do you get around in those things?" He muttered, and resumed pacing.

"When he's stressed he likes to insult species," Rose said to Jack, the Doctor presumed. He didn't look up from his pacing.

"Rose, I'm thinking," he called, annoyed.

"Cuts himself shaving does a half an hour on species he's cleverer than," she continued, and the Doctor could almost feel the teasing smile she was giving him.

How was she teasing him? She'd been able to feel the wrongness from the beginning; it was only just hitting him now, so it must be much stronger for her. He chanced a glance at her, and noticed for the first time she was paler than usual, with a few beads of sweat on her brow; her pupils were dilated, too. _'Oh,'_ the Doctor realized; that's why she was teasing him: to distract herself.

He shook himself to get back on track, and started thinking aloud to distract _himself_. "There are these children living rough around the bomb site. They come out during air-raids looking for food," he said, brow furrowed as he talked himself through it.

"Mummy, please?" The Child's voice insisted. Someone really ought to turn that recording off…

"Suppose they were there when this thing—whatever it was—landed?" He continued.

"It was a med-ship. It was harmless," Jack insisted, the annoyance from their previous discussion coming back into his voice.

"Doctor," Rose called, but he ignored her for a moment.

"Yes, you keep saying," the Doctor scoffed. "'Harmless'. Suppose one of them was affected—altered?" He asked.

"Altered how?" Jack demanded.

"Doctor," Rose said again, a bit more urgently this time. But the Doctor was close, so close…

"I'm here!" The Child's voice proclaimed.

"It's afraid. Terribly afraid, and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do." He paused, then laughed, and turned to Rose finally. "It's got the power of a God, and you just sent it to its room," he said, amused despite the situation.

Rose turned large, scared eyes to him. "The tape ran out about thirty seconds ago," she said quietly.

"I'm here now, can't you see me?" The Child's voice came again. The Doctor and Jack both turned to look towards the source, and found themselves face-to-face with the child, not the recording.

"This is its room," Rose groaned.

"Are you my mummy?" The child asked, looking at Rose. The Doctor automatically moved closer to her and grabbed her hand.

"Alright, on my signal," Jack said grimly. The Doctor glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. "Make for the door... now!" He yelled, and pulled a banana from his coat.

As the Doctor and Jack stared incredulously (and happily, in the Doctor's case) at the banana, Rose turned violently in the Doctor's grip, pulling her hand free. "Go! Now!" She yelled, producing Jack's blaster from Rassilon knows where and firing a large, square hole in the wall.

"Don't drop the banana!" The Doctor yelled, laughing madly as he, Jack, and Rose all leapt through the hole.

"Why not?!" Jack yelled, confusion, amusement, and anger all playing for dominance in his voice.

"Good source of potassium!" Rose answered with a cheeky grin.

They ended up back in a corridor with the child attempting to follow them through the wall. "Give me that!" Jack demanded, pulling the blaster from Rose's grip and aiming at the hole again. The wall appeared back in place, sealing the child on the other side and away from them. "Digital rewind," he explained, tossing the banana to the Doctor. "Nice switch," he added to Rose, flirtation heavy in his voice.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and ground his teeth as he examined the banana. "It's from the Groves of Villengard!" The Doctor exclaimed, and began searching his pockets. Coming up empty, he glared at Rose; the little thief had taken this banana from his pocket!

"I thought it was appropriate," she shrugged, smiling mischievously.

Jack looked between the two before settling on the Doctor. "There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?" He demanded.

"Bananas are good," the Doctor said simply, shoving the banana back in its rightful pocket.

There was a thumping noise coming from the wall the child was behind, and a crack appeared in the plaster, making them all jump. "Right, time to go!" The Doctor shouted, turning and running.

They all took off running, following the Doctor. They hurried down a flight of stairs, hoping to make it to the ground floor, but ran into a crowd of the gasmask people before they could get very far. "Back, back!" Rose yelled, grabbing the Doctor by the arm and pulling him back the way they came.

Rose ran at the head this time, leading them back the way they'd come, more gasmask people spilling out from other wards and corridors. They got back to where they'd started, but there were more of the patients blocking the other exit. The child was still banging on the wall, and the wall looked like it wouldn't last much longer.

Both the Doctor and Jack moved in front of Rose this time, and started backing towards the wall. "It's keeping us here so it can get at us!" The Doctor yelled over the cries of "Mummy!"

Jack had his blaster out, and was trying to decide where to point it. "It's controlling them?" He demanded, not pleased with this revelation.

"It is them," Rose said from behind them. "Every living thing in this hospital."

"Okay," Jack said, and the Doctor was surprised at the determination in his voice. "This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?"

The Doctor pulled his screwdriver out of his jacket. "Er," he muttered, realizing it was not exactly the tool he needed in the current situation. "I've got a sonic…oh, never mind," he muttered, pointing the screwdriver at the crowd and trying to remember if he had a setting for unhappy children.

"What?" Jack demanded impatiently.

"It's sonic, okay, let's leave it at that!"

"Disrupter? Canon? What?" Jack insisted.

"It's sonic!" The Doctor assured him. "Totally sonic! I am sonic-ed up!" Okay, that might have been slightly overkill.

"A sonic _what_?" Jack yelled in annoyance.

"_Screwdriver!_" The Doctor yelled, exasperated.

Jack spun around to stare at the Doctor disbelievingly, his eyes going immediately to the screwdriver. Behind them, the wall finally crumbled as the child burst through.

"Going down!" Rose yelled, reaching between the two men to grab Jack's wrist and point the blaster at the ground. A square hole opened beneath them and deposited them ungracefully a floor below.

"Everybody okay?" Rose groaned as she sat up. Jack was already pointing his blaster at the ceiling to close up the hole before they could be followed.

"Could've used a warning," the Doctor grumbled as he sat up, rubbing his back. He was getting too old for this nonsense.

"You can still complain, good. You'll be fine," Rose said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack demanded, coming back over to them.

"I do!" The Doctor said indignantly, pulling himself to his feet.

"Right…light!" Rose said, pulling away from the men.

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks 'Oooo, this could be a little more sonic?'"

"What, you've never been bored?" The Doctor asked defensively. Rose was still muttering about finding a light switch, undoubtedly trying to get them to focus, and failing miserably. Nobody insulted the screwdriver. "Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?" Not that he ever had put up cabinets. Come to think of it, did he even have a setting for that? He would have to look into that one…

"Ah hah!" Comes Rose's triumphant voice, and light fills the room.

"Mummy?" Apparently they'd managed to fall into another ward (because really, that is his luck today. Chased a conman to World War II, lost a bet to Rose, had his ears insulted by a little girl. Of course he would land in a ward full of gasmask people), because the beds were filled with the gasmask zombies, and they were all sitting up in bed staring at them.

"Door," Jack said hoarsely, backing towards the door as the patients started coming towards them. They ran to the door (which was, of course, locked. Par for the course!), and Jack paused to blast it open. The blaster made a sad little noise, but not much else. "Damn it!" Jack yelled, whacking the blaster against his hand as the Doctor stepped around him and pointed the screwdriver at the door. Not so useless now, huh?

"It's the special features, they really drain the battery," Jack grumbled as the Doctor opened the door and rushed through.

"Battery?" Rose exclaimed from behind him. "That's so lame!" The Doctor allowed himself a grin at that one.

Once the other two were through, the Doctor slammed the door shut again and locked it with his screwdriver. Jack and Rose were still gabbing, and he wondered (not for the first time) if Rose wasn't a little more human than she thought.

"I was gonna send for another one, but _somebody's_ gonna blow up the factory." The Doctor could practically feel the glare on his back as he finished locking the door.

"Oh, I know, first time he met me he blew up my job. It's practically his way of saying hello."

"Okay, that should hold the door for a bit," the Doctor said loudly, cutting Jack off as he went to reply.

"The Door?! The _wall_ didn't stop it!" Jack exclaimed.

"Well it's gotta _find_ us first!" The Doctor retorted. "Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"

"Well I've got a banana, and in a pinch, you could put up some shelves," Jack said sarcastically.

The Doctor glared at him for a moment, then started walking for the only window in the room. "The window—" he started, but Jack interrupted.

"Barred, sheer drop outside, seven stories."

"And no other exits," Rose chimed in, oh so helpfully.

Jack settled into a wheelchair and crossed his legs. "Well, the assets conversation was over in a flash, now wasn't it," Jack said mockingly.

The Doctor glared at him for a moment before turning to Rose. "So where'd you find this one?" He snapped.

Rose glared right back. "Hanging from a barrage balloon—where do ya think?" She snapped. "I told you; I knew him. Will know him. Whatever!"

"Said I'm like her brother," Jack threw in, and the Doctor paused to glare at him again.

He turned away and took to pacing again. "Okay, so one, we can't get out of here. Two, we _can't_ get out of here. Am I missing anything?" He asked sarcastically.

"Yep," Rose said, sounding tired. "Jack just disappeared."

The Doctor stopped his pacing to see that, yep, he and Rose were alone in the small room. How the hell had Jack managed that?

* * *

**So I cut this one mid-episode because it was already starting to run a little long. I'll finish it up next chapter, promise. **

**This one was fun, including the Doctor's thoughts. His brain is a fun place to inhabit!**

**Thanks again to ocean-of-ink for the cover art!**

**Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed; I love finding out people's opinions about my writing!**

**Until next time!**


	8. Chapter 8

"_Yep," Rose said, sounding tired. "Jack just disappeared."_

_The Doctor stopped his pacing to see that, yep, he and Rose were alone in the small room. How the hell had Jack managed that?_

The Doctor flopped into the chair Jack had recently vacated while Rose took up the job of pacing.

"Does he do this often, your friend?" The Doctor asked sourly.

Rose let out a humorless chuckle. "Yes, quite frequently. Though, if his stories are to be believed, he usually just disappears from beds while the other inhabitants are asleep."

The Doctor snorted. "Figures."

"Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me?" An old radio neither of them had noticed in the corner relayed a static-filled version of Jack's voice. Both Rose and the Doctor hurried over to it as Jack's voice continued "I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport, sorry I couldn't take you."

The Doctor, frowning in confusion, reached around behind the radio to hold up the wires that should power the machine, but had obviously been ripped out. Rose raised an eyebrow. Jack seemed to have a new trick: communicating through broken radios.

"It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it—hang in there," Jack continued, oblivious to their confusion.

"How, exactly, are you speaking to us?" Rose asked curiously.

"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grill," Jack explained, a bit of smugness in his voice that Rose wasn't overly fond of.

"Now there's a coincidence," the Doctor muttered, glaring at the radio suspiciously.

"What is?" Jack asked.

"The child can Om-Com, too."

Rose remembered the mysterious phone call she'd gotten earlier. "Even the TARDIS phone, apparently."

The Doctor nodded, appearing about as happy with the idea as Rose was. "The child can phone you?" Jack asked; and Rose couldn't tell if he was amused or horrified at the idea.

"And I can hear you," came the child's voice through the radio, in a sing-song. "Coming to find you, coming to find you!"

"Doctor, can you hear that?" Jack asked urgently.

"Loud and clear," the Doctor responded grimly.

"I'll try and block out the signal," Jack offered. "Least I can do," he added, sounding almost guilty.

"Coming to find you, mummy!" The child called one last time before music started playing through the radio, masking the child's voice.

Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" was playing, and the song startled a laugh from Rose. The Doctor looked at her curiously, and Rose shook her head, a small, sad smile on her face. "Nice to know some things never change," she said quietly, going to sit in the chair. The Doctor's eyes followed her curiously. "Jack used to play this song whenever I was in a bad mood. Always tried to convince me to dance with him. Guess I know where the tradition started, now…" She added quietly.

The Doctor looked uncomfortable for a moment, like he wanted to say something, but then apparently gave up. He turned to the window, and climbed up on a desk, aiming his sonic screwdriver at the bars in the window, the buzzing of the screwdriver starting to play with the music.

Rose watched him in silence for a few minutes. "Alright, I'll bite: what are you doing?"

"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete; loosen the bars," he explained distractedly.

Rose raised an eyebrow. "That's a long shot…" she muttered. He didn't respond, and she kept watching him. "You don't think he's coming back, do ya?" She asked finally.

She watched as the black leather that covered his shoulders moved in a slight shrug. "Wouldn't bet my life on it," he said simply.

"I know he's not the easiest person to trust right now," Rose sighed, looking down at her hands, "but he really is a great guy. He's just…a little rough around the edges right now. Has some growing up to do, yet."

"Yeah, well, maybe in his future, when he's the Jack that dances with you, he's trustworthy. Right now, though? I'm not so sure," the Doctor muttered gruffly.

Rose was silent for a few minutes. "Tried to dance with me," she commented absently, staring off into a corner. "I never actually did dance with him; always just laughed him off." She paused for a moment, her eyes traveling to the back of the Doctor's head. "Never danced with anyone, actually," she said thoughtfully. "Huh. One hundred and six, you'd think I'd've danced at some point…" she was surprised at her own revelation. Dancing was something she'd never really given much thought to before, except maybe when Jack asked her. But it had never occurred to her to actually try her hand (foot?) at dancing; she wondered if she was missing out on anything.

She watched the Doctor quietly for a moment, before getting out of the chair and going to the radio. She turned the volume up (and why did that work if the radio was technically broken? Odd, that), then walked over to the Doctor, who had turned around at some point, and was now watching her suspiciously.

"Dance with me?" Rose asked, holding out her hand to him. The Doctor's eyebrows shot up, and he was either surprised or nervous, Rose wasn't entirely sure. "Show me your moves," she grinned.

The Doctor turned back to the wall, but Rose was pretty sure she saw the tips of his ears go pink. "Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete," he informed her seriously.

But Rose wasn't ready to give up that easily. She grabbed the bottom of his jacket and gave it a light tug, just enough to make him stumble a bit and glare at her. "Jack'll be back, he'll get us out," she insisted. "So come and dance with me! The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances," she added with a grin.

The Doctor made a face before stepping down off of the desk he'd been on, and walking over to Rose. He gave her one last long-suffering look before he took her hands and the two of them started to dance awkwardly.

"You weren't joking, you really have never danced," the Doctor winced as Rose stepped on his foot.

Rose glared at him. "Oi! At least I'm trying! You'll find your feet at the end of your legs, by the way; I'm pretty sure you're supposed to move them when you dance."

The Doctor made a face right back, but, somehow, they managed to find a rhythm, and the dance lost some of its awkwardness.

"So this is dancin'," Rose mused after a moment silence. "Well, I suppose it's not _so_ bad," she allowed.

The Doctor snorted. "You should see how they dance on New Earth, totally different."

"Pretty sure I accidently agreed to marriage, once, dancing on New Earth," Jack said idly, making Rose and the Doctor spring apart. Rose looked around, wondering when exactly they'd been moved onto Jack's ship. "Most people notice when they've been teleported," Jack commented with a smirk. "You guys are so sweet. Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."

"You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is," the Doctor said a bit more gruffly than Rose thought was absolutely necessary.

Jack grinned a grin Rose had seen far more times than she was comfortable with. "Oh, I do. She was _gorgeous_."

Rose sighed, shaking her head. Jack grinned once more, and disappeared into a compartment underneath the console. She looked around curiously. "This is a Chula ship," she remarked.

"Yeah, just like that medical transporter," Jack called up from under the console. "Only this one _is_ dangerous."

The Doctor snapped his fingers suddenly, and golden glowing lights streamed down from the ceiling to surround his hand.

"Nanogenes?" Rose asked curiously, moving closer to get a better look.

The Doctor nodded. "Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed - all better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws." He paused, watching the little robots for a moment, before shaking his hand and scattering them. He turned to Jack as he reemerged from below the console. "Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk," he ordered.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Soon as I get the nav-com back online," he said placatingly. The Doctor looked ready to argue (what he was going to argue about, Rose had no idea. It wasn't like he could argue the ship into working, honestly!) but Jack cut him off. "Make yourselves comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were…" he gestured between them and wiggled his eyebrows in a suggestive manner "…doing."

The Doctor stuttered a few times, and Rose was positive his ears turned pink this time. Superior Time Lord biology indeed.

Rose decided to spare him the conversation, and moved up to the front of the ship to sit next to Jack. She still had some questions, anyway. "So, you used to be a Time Agent, and now you're trying to con them?" She prompted, propping her head up with her fist as she watched him.

He glanced at her for a moment, then looked back to the console where he was working on getting the nav-com back online. "What, future me didn't tell you about it?" He asked, a bit snidely. Rose just stared at him, waiting. He sighed. "Well, it's not just to make a quick buck, like you accused me of earlier," he glared at her, but there wasn't much heat behind it.

She sighed. "Sorry about that I was…peeved. So, why are you trying to con them, then?"

He fiddled with something for a moment. "Woke up one day when I was working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back," he said simply.

"They stole your memories?" Rose asked, horrified and angry. To have that much of your life missing from your memory…she shuddered. A lot could happen in two years.

"Two years of my life. No idea what I did," he muttered, bitterness seeping into his tone. Jack turned a bit in his chair, and motioned towards the Doctor. "Your friend over there doesn't trust me. And for all I know, he's right not to."

Rose's heart went out to Jack, and she wondered why her version of him never told her this. Maybe he let it go? Or maybe it was because she'd been much…darker, when she first met Jack, and he hadn't wanted to see how she'd react. Rose placed a consoling hand on Jack's shoulder, and smiled slightly. He smiled back, but then the computer beeped and the moment was over. Rose's hand fell away as Jack sat forward. "Okay, we're good to go!" Jack announced, the usual cheer back in his tone. "Crash site?" He asked the Doctor with a grin, then pressed a button.

Jack couldn't land them directly at the site, there were too many people, so he landed them just outside of it. They got to the crash site rather quickly by taking a slight detour through a railway station, which also let they bypass the barbed wire fence. They stayed out of sight as they watched the soldiers on duty, Rose making sure to stay between the Doctor and Jack so they wouldn't start arguing again.

"There it is," Jack said quietly, his eyes scanning the soldiers before a smile crossed his face. "Hey, they've got Algy on duty. Must be important."

"We've gotta get past," The Doctor muttered, looking for a way to sneak around Algy.

"Are you distracting him or me then?" Rose asked Jack with a smile.

Jack grinned. "I'm afraid you're not his type. I'll take him." He started walking towards the site, before turning back to them with wide grin. "Don't wait up!" He called, before trotting off.

Rose laughed quietly, shaking her head. "And there's another thing that never changes," she murmured fondly.

"So you two never, ah, _danced_?" The Doctor asked, sounding uncomfortable.

Rose frowned at him for a moment, trying to figure out why he put such emphasis on the word "danced." She caught on for a moment, an almost visible light bulb appearing over her head. "Oh, you mean sex!" She exclaimed. The Doctor's ears went pink again. "Oh, sorry, was I not supposed to say that? Still haven't quite gotten this filter thing down yet," she apologized. "But no, Jack and I never slept together. Our relationship was closer to brother and sister than anything," she explained with a shrug.

"Ah," was the Doctor's only response. His ears were still pink, Rose noted with some amusement. She'd managed to make them do that more today than she ever had before.

They both watched as Jack approached Algy, and Rose grinned as she noticed that things didn't seem to be going as well as Jack had hoped; that man needed a good blow to his ego. But her grin faded as Algy dropped to the ground, coughing and spluttering before his face started to transform into a gasmask.

"Stay back!" The Doctor yelled, running out from their hiding place and down to Jack, Rose hot on his heels. Jack was backing away, a look of horror on his face before he started to shout at the other soldiers to stay back.

"The effect's becoming airborne, accelerating," the Doctor stated grimly as they all stared down at Algy, who hadn't gotten up yet.

"What's keeping us safe, then?" Rose asked hesitantly.

"Nothing."

She sighed. "I was afraid you'd say that," she muttered.

The air-raid siren sounded, and Jack glanced up. "Ah, here they come again."

"All we need," Rose growled in frustration. "Didn't you say a bomb was gonna land here?"

Jack nodded, but the Doctor cut across him before he could say anything. "Never mind about that. If the contaminates air-borne now, there's only hours left." He had what Rose recognized as his disaster voice on now.

"For what?" Jack asked.

"'Til nothing. 'Til forever. For the entire human race. And can anyone else hear singing?" He added abruptly, turning towards the source of the noise.

Rose followed him to a shed where the singing was coming from, and peered under his arm as he pushed the door open. A young girl was sitting at a table, singing a lullaby to one of the gasmask people, keeping it asleep on the table. Rose frowned as she looked at her, trying to place where she'd seen her before. It clicked when the girl turned to look at them, her eyes wide with fear. It was the girl who'd warned Rose not to answer the phone back at the TARDIS…how'd she get here?

The Doctor motioned for the girl to keep singing, and she did, but moved her arm to show them that she'd been handcuffed to the table. Rose stayed back, moving aside to let Jack slip in, as the Doctor quietly slipped over to the girl to unlock the handcuffs. They hurried back over to the door, and Rose slipped an arm around the girl's too thin shoulders, trying to still her trembling as they went back outside.

"You alright?" Rose asked quietly as they made their way over to the crash site proper. The girl opened her mouth, closed it, swallowed, then nodded. Rose smiled. "That's good. I'm Rose, by the way, what's your name?" She asked encouragingly.

"…Nancy," she managed after a moment. She seemed to be calming down already, and Rose admired the girl's strength at the same time that she mourned that one so young had to be so strong.

Jack and the Doctor were pulling a tarp off of the space junk, revealing a capsule like craft half buried in the ground. "You see? Just an ambulance," Jack said firmly.

"That's an ambulance?" Nancy asked skeptically.

"It's hard to explain…" Rose murmured as she watched. "It's from another world." Nancy seemed to accept that for the time being, and, after the day she'd had, Rose didn't really blame her.

Jack frowned at the controls on the outside of the capsule. "They've been trying to get in."

"Of course they have," the Doctor grumbled as Jack started pushing buttons. "They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon." He watched Jack for a moment. "What're you doing?"

"Well the sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll see I had nothing to do with it," Jack explained, the annoyance from the old argument creeping back into his voice. Rose wondered how he was managing to ignore all the signs that pointed to him and his junk being responsible for this mess. She walked away from Nancy and closer to the capsule so she could see inside of it when Jack opened it.

Just as she got close to it, the control panel Jack had been messing with exploded in a shower of sparks, making them all jump backwards. An alarm went off after that, making Rose nervous.

"That didn't happen last time!" Jack exclaimed defensively when the Doctor glared at him.

"It hadn't crashed last time. They're the emergency protocols," the Doctor growled.

"Doctor," Rose whispered, rubbing her arms as a chill crept up her spine. "They're coming!"

The gates at the end of the enclosure started shaking as the gasmask people started to try and force their way in. Rose pulled Nancy close to her again as the first calls of "Mummy!" reached them.

"Captain, secure those gates!" The Doctor ordered, going into a soldier like mode that Rose hadn't seen in him before. She realized with a start she didn't know just how close to the Time War they were, and this might be remnants of that mentality.

"Why?" Jack demanded, war in his voice, too.

"Just do it!" The Doctor yelled, and this time Jack obeyed, running off towards the gates. The Doctor turned to Rose and Nancy, his face hard. "Nancy, how'd you get in here?" He demanded.

"I cut the wire," Nancy responded, a mixture of fear and strength in her voice.

"Show Rose," he ordered, tossing his screwdriver to Rose. "Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty-eight D," he instructed.

"Got it!" Rose called, already running off towards the fence, pulling Nancy along. "Reattaches barbed wire," she added for Nancy's benefit.

They fixed the hole in the fence in record time, and hurried back to Jack and the Doctor, and found them looking into the ship, arguing again.

"It's empty, look at it!" Jack said, sounding relieved. Rose wondered if he'd started to doubt himself at some point during all this madness.

"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops? Rose?" The Doctor turned to her.

Rose paled, understanding. "Nanogenes," she whispered.

The Doctor nodded, and turned back to Jack. "It wasn't empty, Captain. There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."

Jack paled as he finally understood. "Oh, God," he whispered, his voice weak. As Rose watched him, she realized he'd known all along he was in some way responsible—it was impossible not to—he'd just managed to lie to himself this whole time. But now, faced with irrefutable proof, he finally had to admit it to himself—and it was killing him.

But the Doctor was taking any pity on him; his eyes were like ice as he glared at him, his voice like steel. "Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night and wearing a gasmask."

"And they brought him back to life," Rose muttered, staring at the ambulance. "Only they didn't know what a human was supposed to look like."

The Doctor nodded, still glaring at the ashen Jack. "All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do, they patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. 'Cos you see _now_ they _think_ they know what people should look like and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop." He paused to let this sink in, then repeated, slower, "They won't ever, ever stop. The entire Human Race is gonna be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and _nothing_ in the world can stop it!" He's shouting by the end of this speech, and Rose doesn't know who she should go to: the Doctor to calm him down, Jack to comfort him, or Nancy, who looks almost as shaken as Jack.

"I didn't know!" Jack exclaimed defiantly. He and the Doctor glared at each other for a few moments longer, before the Doctor started examining the med-ship with his screwdriver again. Rose moved to help him, but was stopped by a hand on her wrist.

"Rose," Nancy said quietly, fear thick in her voice. Rose turned to follow her gaze, and immidiatly pulled Nancy behind her when she saw the gasmask zombies had gotten in, and were coming straight for them.

"Come on," she ordered, pulling Nancy closer to the ship. "They're almost here," she told the Doctor. Rose placed a finger on a blinking red light on the control panel. "It's bringing them here," she realized, then cursed in an alien language.

"The ship thinks it's under attack," the Doctor agreed, voice hard. "So it's bringing in the troops. Standard protocol."

Rose cursed again. "This is a battle field ambulance?" She asked. "That's why the child was so strong, and why it had om-com capabilities. It's a fully programmed Chula warrior now."

"All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four year old looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them," the Doctor said darkly. He stood up from where he been scanning the ship, and turned to look at the approaching army. Jack moved around to stand next to them.

"Why don't they attack?" Jack demanded, slightly panicked.

"They're waiting for their commanding officer," Rose said faintly, feeling sick from the proximity of all the gasmask people. The way they felt…it was like they were empty, just husks. It was unnerving at best; at worst, with so many of them, Rose was starting to feel dizzy, nauseous. The Doctor's hand slipped into hers, squeezing reassuringly.

"The Child?" Jack asked in reference to Rose's statement.

"Jamie," Nancy said quietly but firmly.

"What?" Jack asked, confused.

"Not the child, Jamie," she said, louder now. Rose stared at her for a moment, the pieces starting to click.

"How long until the bomb drops?" She asked Jack, looking away from Nancy.

"Any second," he responded tersely.

"What's the matter, Captain?" The Doctor mocked angrily. "A bit close to the volcano for you?"

"He's just a little boy," Nancy whispered, staring out into the army.

"I know," Rose responded, pulling away from the Doctor to walk over to Nancy on uncertain legs.

"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy," Nancy repeated, her voice breaking as she struggled not to cry.

"I know. There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can," Rose murmured, looking out at the crowd.

"So what are we going to _do_?" Jack demanded.

"I don't know," the Doctor said flatly.

Rose sighed and put a hand on Nancy's shoulder, squeezing it as the first few tears fell from the younger girl's eyes. "It's all my fault," she whispered brokenly.

"No," Rose disagreed, shaking her head, then stopping when the motion made the world spin.

"It is. It's all my fault," Nancy cried.

The Doctor walked over then, his voice becoming gentle for the first time that night. "How can it be your—" he stopped abruptly, spinning around to look at all the people shouting for their mummies. The pieces clicked into place for him at the same time they did for Rose.

"Nancy, what age are you?" Rose asked the sobbing girl. "Twenty? Twenty-one? Older than you look, right?" Rose asked urgently, her hand tightening on Nancy's shoulder.

A bomb dropped nearby, but Rose and the Doctor ignored it. "Doctor, Rose, that bomb—we've got seconds," Jack called, worried. Another bomb landed nearby, and Jack continued. "I can't teleport you out again; nav-com's back on, so teleport's only coded to my molecular structure. Gonna take too long to override protocols."

"So it's Volcano Day," the Doctor said flatly, not looking away from Nancy. "Do what you gotta do."

Rose looked up for a moment, making eye contact with Jack. He stared at her for a moment, his face torn, before resolution settled in. He pressed a button on his wrist, and teleported away with one last apologetic look at Rose.

The Doctor continued questioning Nancy. "How old were you five years ago? Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway."

Nancy kept sobbing, unable to look either of them in the eye. "He's not your brother, is he?" Rose asked gently. Nancy shook her head, pulling her face away from her hands. "A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied," Rose murmured, piecing it all together.

"You even lied to him," the Doctor finished.

The gate at the end of the enclosure swung open, making them all look over. "Mummy?" Jamie called, walking through the crowd, which parted for him, making his way to the three of them. "Are you my mummy?"

"He's gonna keep asking, Nancy. He's never gonna stop. Tell him," the Doctor urged.

Rose sat down hard as the sick feeling got to be too much to bear. How the Doctor was managing, she had no clue.

The gasmask people started towards them, and Nancy remained motionless, her eyes locked on Jamie. "Nancy," the Doctor said urgently, "the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me, and tell him."

Nancy sniffed, still crying, as Jamie drew closer. "Are you my mummy?" He asked again, looking at Nancy now. The Doctor gave her a gentle push, and she started hesitantly towards Jamie. Rose watched, vision greying around the edges, as Nancy's face filled with the same determination she had so admired earlier. "Are you my mummy?" The child asked, looking up at Nancy. "Are you my mummy?"

"Yes," Nancy whispered. "Yes. I _am_ your mummy," she said, stronger now.

"Mummy?"

"I'm here."

"Are you my mummy?"

Nancy walked forward a bit more and knelt in front of Jamie. "Yes," she whispered again.

The Doctor crouched down next to Rose, putting a supporting arm around her shoulders to steady her. "He doesn't understand," he murmured, worried, "there's not enough of him left."

"Just…wait…" Rose murmured, leaning into him. Nancy was too strong, too brave, to fail in this.

"I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry," Nancy cried, and then gathered Jamie into her arms, hugging him tightly. A golden glow started to surround them as the nanogenes stirred.

"See?" Rose murmured tiredly, a small smile on her face.

"I'm so, so sorry," Nancy was still crying, hugging her child and stroking his hair.

The Doctor held Rose tighter as he watched, murmuring "Come on, please. Come on, you _clever_ little nanogenes: figure it out! The mother. She's the mother! There's gotta be enough information, figure it out!"

The nanogenes disappeared, and Nancy fell back. The Doctor let Rose go, and hurried over. Rose's head cleared a bit, and she hugged her knees to keep upright. The Doctor went straight to Jamie and grabbed hold of his gasmask, slipping it right off. Rose smiled as she caught sight of Nancy's son's face for the first time. The Doctor laughed ecstatically and lifted the boy into the air, swinging him around. "Welcome back! Twenty years 'til pop music; you're gonna love it!" He exclaimed. Rose chuckled and shook her head, then groaned. There was still a rather large crowd of them, and they were still making her sick.

The Doctor handed Jamie back down to Nancy, still beaming. "The nanogenes recognised the superior information—the parent DNA. They didn't change _you_ because _you_ changed them! Mother knows best!" The Doctor cheered.

A bomb landed nearby, and Rose looked up. _'Please, please let him be the man I know him to be, please!'_ she thought silently, waiting for the bomb that should kill them all. Just as she saw it, Jack's ship zoomed out behind it, and trapped it in the tractor beam. And of course, in true Jack style, Jack was riding the bomb, wearing his captain's hat.

"Doctor!" He called down to them.

"Good lad!" The Doctor called back, approval in his voice for the first time.

"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis but it won't last long," Jack called down.

"Change of plan, don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it? Safely as you can?" The Doctor called back up.

"Rose?" Jack called, looking down at her.

"Yeah?" She called back, so intensely proud that he'd done that growing up she'd told him to do.

"Goodbye," his voice was solemn, and then he and the bomb disappeared back into his ship, the ship taking off as well.

If that boy got himself killed, she was going to give him hell.

The Doctor walked over to her, staring at his hands. He grinned down at her. "You want moves, Rose?" He asked cheekily. "I'll give you moves!" The nanogenes gathered around his hands, and then thrust them out towards the army of gasmask people, grinning madly. The nanogenes swarmed over the group, curing them and making them fall by the dozens. "Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once. Everybody lives!"

Rose laughed, leaning against his leg as she watched in wonder. So rarely, so terribly rarely, did they have a day like this; a day where no one died, no one was left homeless. It was such a wonderful feeling…Rose watched avidly, trying to make sure she would be able to remember this moment forever.

The nanogenes faded away, and the Doctor hurried over to talk to the newly revived Dr. Constantine. Rose stayed back, waiting as the last of sickness faded from her head. She didn't like being sick, she decided. It was definitely something to avoid.

Rose was just standing up when the Doctor came hurrying back over. "Right, set the ship to self-destruct: history says there was an explosion here, who am I to argue?"

"Usually first in line," Rose quipped.

The Doctor grinned. "See you're feeling better then!" He exclaimed.

They made their way back to the TARDIS, the Doctor still chatting about how everything worked out perfectly. Rose smiled quietly, letting him have his moment. As rare as these days were for her, she knew they were even rarer for him.

"Doctor," She said after they'd boarded the TARDIS.

"Go on, ask me anything, I'm on _fire!_" He crowed.

"We have to save Jack," she said firmly, watching him closely.

He sobered for a minute, sighed, then nodded. "Right-o," he muttered. He set the controls, running about as usual. Rose sat on the jump seat, staring at the door, a smile still on her face. Music filled the air, and she looked up, eyebrow raised.

"Never did finish that dance," the Doctor grinned, holding his hand out to her. Rose laughed, and leapt to her feet. She ran right past him and to the doors, flinging them open, before hurrying back to the Doctor.

"Jack can let himself in," she explained, taking his hand. Their dance wasn't as awkward as before, but Rose was still pretty bad at it. She practically fell over when the Doctor went to spin her.

"Close the door," the Doctor called over her shoulder. As they turned, Rose saw Jack, and grinned. "Your ship's about to blow up, you'll let in a draft." They broke apart, the Doctor staying in front of the console, Rose leaning against one of the coral pillars, grinning.

"Welcome to the TARDIS," the Doctor announced.

Jack's face was priceless. "Much bigger on the inside…" Jack said in awe as he looked around.

"You better be," the Doctor sad seriously.

Rose rolled her eyes and laughed. The song switched over to "In the Mood," and Rose straightened. "Oh, I _like_ this one!" she exclaimed, moving towards the Doctor.

"What, not going to offer me a dance?" Jack called, apparently recovering quickly from the shock of the TARDIS.

"Oh, I'm sure you'd love a dance," Rose called, grinning cheekily. "But I'm not sure who with!"

* * *

**So much longer than I thought it would be! I didn't read over this one as carefully as I usually do because it's very long and I'm very tired. I'll probably regret this in the morning.**

**So what do you think of my changes to the dancing scenes? I was a little unsure of them, but they were the only things that work for the image of Rose I have. Comments please?**

**Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed!**


	9. Chapter 9

Rose poked her head out the door of the TARDIS and grinned, before looking back inside. "Yep! You managed to get the right time _and_ place this go, bravo!" She called to the Doctor teasingly before grabbing a scarf off of the railing.

The Doctor glared at her while Jack laughed. They'd picked up Jack only about a week ago, but even he'd become familiar with the Doctor's troubles when it came to landing where he'd intended to. Of course, Rose knew that many of their mislandings were a direct result of the TARDIS' meddling, but she didn't tell the Doctor that; teasing him was too much fun.

"And where are you off to in such a hurry then?" The Doctor asked gruffly, apparently still annoyed at her little quip about his driving.

Rose finished winding the scarf about her neck and headed back towards the door. "Gotta see a friend while we're in town. Shouldn't be long," she called, before shutting the door firmly behind her. Questions about her friend could be a bit…difficult. At least as far as their resident Captain was concerned.

She hummed to herself tunelessly as she made her way down to the familiar little tourist shop not too far from where the TARDIS had landed. "Hello," she called as she stepped inside and was surprised, and a bit disappointed, to see that Ianto wasn't at his usual post. "Guess I'm letting myself in, then," she grumbled before flipping the switch that opened the passage in the wall.

She resumed humming as she walked, but stopped once she got into the Hub. She paused to glance around, taking in the changes from the last time she'd been in, and started for Jack's office.

"Better hurry," Tosh called, not bothering to greet her or look up from whatever it was he was doing. "He's none too pleased with you at the moment."

Rose frowned, wondering what she'd done this time, before continuing to Jack's office, letting herself in without knocking.

"Hey, Jack—" she started, but was cut off rather abruptly when she had to duck to avoid a flying stapler. "The hell?" She screeched, standing upright again.

"'Jack, I'm stuck in the middle of an alien invasion in London,'" Jack said in falsetto voice that Rose got the impression was supposed to sound like hers (she really hoped she didn't sound like that) glaring at her all the while. "'Jack, I need you to fire this missile at me. Jack, I'll call you when it's over.' And now _six months later_, you decide to just _wander_ in here like nothing happened?!" he yelled, hands jerking wildly in the air as he carried on.

Rose took a seat on his desk and waited for him to finish. Judging by the volume and the speed at which his hands were moving, she was in for quite the lecture.

"Nothing! No call, no note, no random alien deposited on my desk," he paused to glare at her, "don't give me that innocent look, I know it was you doing that last December." He shook his head and quieted for a moment, regaining his train of thought. "Not even 'Bad Wolf' written cryptically on a building! _Nothing_! The only reason I knew you were alive is a couple of cameras caught you and the Doctor coming out of the ruble of Downing Street!" He glared at her for a full minute. "Do you have _anything_ to say for yourself?" He snapped.

Rose took it as a dare. "Has it only been six months?"

_Well_. There were times that Rose regretted teaching Jack some of the alien curse words she'd picked up over the years; today was definitely one of those days. He yelled for a good five minutes with Rose trying not to laugh the whole time. When he finally finished, he plopped back down into his chair, apparently exhausted by his little display. "You done?" Rose asked with a little smile. Jack glared at her, but nodded. "Good. You mispronounced one, by the way. It's _yagdoshira_ not _yogdoshia_."

Jack glared at her again, but only for a moment before they both burst into laughter. "I'm still mad at you," he choked out, rubbing tears from his eye.

"Of course you are," Rose returned, still chortling. She sobered after a moment. "I really am sorry, though," she said sincerely. "I got the chance to travel with the Doctor again, and I just got so completely caught up in it…" she trailed off, shaking her head.

Jack smiled in understanding. "It's alright. Just don't ever do that to me again, okay?" Rose nodded in agreement. Jack leaned back in his chair, and Rose felt the moment slip away. "So, Cardiff? Does that mean you've recently acquired a rather attractive captain from the Second World War?" Rose thought the smile on his face was the very definition of a shit eating grin.

"Oi, come to think of it, I'm cross at you!" Rose exclaimed. She got off his desk and went back towards the door to collect the stapler he'd thrown at her, and promptly lodged it at his head.

Jack caught it easily and set it back on his desk, still smirking. "I'll take that as a yes."

Rose grumbled to herself as she walked back over, sitting in a chair this time. "Yeah, yeah, we found you. Conman?" She asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"You're one to talk!" He protested. "Second time we met you were posing as a Duchess!"

Rose smiled fondly at the memory. That had been right when she'd first lost the Doctor—the older one, not the leather clad one—and during…well, whatever reason it was that had Jack was wandering about in the 1900s. He'd never told her. "Yes, but you didn't tell me that we met before that," she complained, returning to her original issue. "I'd just assumed you were an older version of the one I already knew!"

"And yet you still managed not to tell me anything that would screw up the timelines," Jack shrugged. He paused for a moment, "Well, except that you would know me in the future. But you'd been telling me that since the _first_ time I met you, so that was nothing new."

Rose threw her hands in the air, giving up. "Right, so, any _other_ versions of you out there that I've got to run into yet?" She asked, sighing.

"Not that I know of!" Jack said cheerfully. "So, if you lot are in Cardiff I suppose that means I have to lie low for the day, right?" Rose nodded. "Thought so. I better let my team know, too…" he trailed off, staring over her head for a moment before shaking himself out of his thoughts. "Right, well, you better go. You've got things to do today!" He grinned, standing up to lead her out of his office.

Rose frowned as he led her along, one hand on the small of her back. "Things to do? But we're only in town to recharge, should be a quiet trip and—I'm traveling with the Doctor, what am I saying?" She muttered, shaking her head. "Can I get a hint?" She asked, looking back at Jack as he led her through the hub and towards the entrance. "Alien attack? Greedy human with technology he shouldn't have? C'mon, what?"

"Spoilers," Jack grinned, before pulling her in for a hug. "Call me sometime, alright? Let me know you're still alive!"

Rose sighed, before pulling away. "Yes, Captain," she said with a mock salute, earning a laugh from Jack. She grinned before starting to walk out.

"Oh, and Rose?" Jack called.

Rose turned back to him, a brow quirked in question.

"The me you're traveling with is going to be leaving soon," Jack told her solemnly, the look in his eye clearly stating he was elsewhere. "I knew what you were that second time we met. You know what that means, right?"

Rose sighed. "I have to tell him," she muttered, rubbing her face. It wasn't so much that she didn't want Jack to know what she was, it was just a very long story that usually raised more questions than it answered.

Jack nodded. "Don't tell me how you…came to be, just what you are. I still don't know how you were created," he smiled slightly. "You told me it was something to be lived."

Rose smiled; that certainly sounded like her. She waved goodbye one last time before leaving, headed for the TARDIS and wondering when she'd get the chance to talk to Jack alone; it still wasn't time for the Doctor to know.

She didn't even make it inside the blue box before the Doctor came bounding out. "Great! You're back!" He said cheerfully as Jack walked out of the TARDIS and shut the door behind him. "Let's go explore!"

"Bored already?" She asked as they started walking, Jack linking his arm through hers.

The Doctor shrugged, but Jack leaned down to whisper in her ear conspiratorially. "He's acting like he's tired of my come ons, but I know he's just playing hard to get." He winked saucily at the Doctor, who scoffed.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"I could tell you _exactly_ what would help me sleep at night," Jack suggested.

"Thanks, but no."

Rose was pretty sure she was going to die for laughing.

* * *

Exploring ended up being a bust, as there wasn't much to do. So they went to a local restaurant instead after Jack informed them the human needed feeding.

They ended up doing very little eating, and a whole lot of talking. Jack's stories were hilarious, even the Doctor ended up laughing.

"And then it roars, and we are running," Jack was saying, already laughin. "Oh my God, we are _running_! And Brakovitch falls, so I turn to him and I say—"

"I knew we should have turned left!" Rose finished as they all laughed.

"That's my line!" Jack protested, still laughing.

"I don't _believe_ you, I don't believe a word you say _ever_!" Rose exclaimed, ignoring him, and trying to calm her giggles. "That is so brilliant!"

The Doctor was still chuckling as he glanced away, almost doing a double take when his eyes landed on a newspaper another patron of the Restaurant was reading. The smile fell from his lips as he looked at the front page, and he slipped from the booth to go take the paper (politely of course. Maybe. Mostly.) from the old man.

"And I was having such a nice day," he mourned, holding up the paper so Jack and Rose could see the picture of Margaret the Slitheen on the front page under the headline "New Mayor, New Cardiff."

Rose groaned and let her head hit the table. Jack raised an eyebrow.

"We've had issues with her before," the Doctor muttered, handing the paper back to the man he stole it from (who was not nearly as pleased to get it back as the Doctor thought he would be. Instead he glared at the Doctor and muttered about tourists). "Right. Let's get this over with."

They paid their bill (at least, he thought they did…whoops) and quickly made their way to town hall. Jack was looking down at his Vortex Manipulator (he had to remember to break that at some point before Jack broke history) as they walked in, looking over some read outs. "According to intelligence, the target is the last surviving member of the Slitheen family, a criminal sect from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorious, masquerading as a human being, zipped inside a skin suit," Jack informed them, reading from the device at his wrist. He looked up to address them after that, his voice taking on the tone the Doctor supposed he used while masquerading as a Captain. "Okay, plan of attack, we assume a basic fifty seven/fifty six strategy, covering all available exits on the ground floor. Doctor, you go face-to-face, that'll designate Exit One, I'll cover Exit Two, Rose, you're Exit Three. We're a man shy, so let's just hope she doesn't go for exit four. Have you got that?"

The Doctor was pretty sure if his eyebrows went any higher, they'd need a TARDIS of their own to survive in space. Since when was Jack the plan maker? He glanced at Rose to see what she thought about all this, and was annoyed to find her bighting her lip to keep from laughing. At him, not at Jack. She was laughing at him. Well, that would never do.

"Excuse me," the Doctor said sternly, bringing his eyebrows back to earth and lowering them into a glare. "Who's in charge here?"

"Depends on the day," Rose muttered under her breath. The Doctor elected to ignore her.

"Sorry. Awaiting orders, sir," Jack apologized, saluting.

The Doctor glared at him for another moment just to make sure it was clear between the two of them who was in charge. "Right, here's the plan," he said, looking between the two before breaking into a grin. "Like he said," he motioned to Jack. "Nice plan. Anything else?" What? So long as he was making the decisions, he was still in charge. Mostly.

"Present arms!" Jack intoned. They all pulled out cellphones (when had Jack grabbed one of those?) and made sure they all had each other on speed dial. Once it was clear they were ready, Jack grinned. "See you in hell!"

They all went to their separate stations, the Doctor's taking him to a door guarded by a secretary. "Hello!" He greeted cheerfully. "I've come to see the Lord Mayor."

"Have you got an appointment?" The secretary, Idris, according to his name plate, asked.

These humans and their appointments. "Nope! Just an old friend passing through! Bit of a surprise, can't wait to see her face!"

"Well, she's just having a cup of tea," Idris said hesitantly; he seemed to be hoping the Doctor would just leave. _'If I had a nickel for every time that happened…'_

"Just go in there and tell her the Doctor would like to see her," He said patiently.

"Doctor who?" Idris asked, resigned.

The Doctor smiled slightly. "Just the Doctor. Tell her exactly that. The Doctor."

"Hold on a tick…" Idris sighed, leaving his desk to go through the door he'd been guarding.

The Doctor hummed to himself as he waited, his eyes wandering the room. The sound of a teacup smashing from the next room filtered out to meet his ears. _'What a waste of tea.'_

Idris slipped back through the door then, opening it as little as possible. He looked flustered, but struggled to maintain his dignity. "The Lord Mayor says thank you for—for popping by... she'd love to have a chat, but, um... she's up to her eyes in paperwork. Perhaps if you could make an appointment for next week...?" Idris trailed off desperately.

"She's climbing out the window, isn't she?" The Doctor asked with that same little smile.

"Yes, she is," Idris agreed, flopping into his chair as he gave up.

The Doctor nodded to himself, and waved goodbye as he went into the next room, straight to the balcony. He stepped outside in just enough time to see Margaret hop over the edge and onto some very convenient scaffolding. He leaned against the railing as he pulled out his mobile, pulling the other two up with the push of a button. "Slitheen heading North," he informed them.

"On my way!" Rose called, and he could already hear her running.

"Over and out," came Jack's voice.

The Doctor was about to climb over the edge of the balcony himself when Idris apparently took interest in his job again, and decided to go above and beyond the call of duty. "Leave the mayor alone!" He shouted, grabbing the Doctor from behind.

"Oh for the love of…" The Doctor grumbled, attempting to twist out of Idris' grip. For a scrawny guy, Idris was surprisingly strong. Added to that that the Doctor was trying _not_ to through the idiot of secretary over the balcony, and getting free took the Doctor a few minutes. Finally throwing Idris off, the Doctor clambered over the edge and started climbing down the balcony. "Margaret!" The Doctor called mockingly as he made his way to the ground. Jack and Rose had each covered an exit, leaving the Slitheen trapped between the three of them.

Until, of course, she noticed a fourth, uncovered exit.

Bollocks.

"Who was supposed to be covering that exit?" Jack demanded as they all converged in front of the exit, watching Margaret's retreating form.

"That was the one we were just sort of hoping she wouldn't notice," Rose commented. "At least it's not like she could out run us," she shrugged. Of course, Margaret chose that moment to activate a teleport she'd apparently been hiding on her person somewhere, disappearing from sight in a blue flash.

"She's got a teleport! That's cheating! Now we're _never_ gonna get her!" Jack yelled in annoyance.

"As I recall, you're pretty good with teleports, aren't you?" Rose asked, looking up at the Doctor.

He grinned, and produced his sonic screwdriver from his pocket. It was too simple, really. Just reversing the leftover teleportation feed to pull Margaret back, plus a little direction reverse so that when she reappeared, she'd be running towards them. He pressed the button on his screwdriver and there she was, running right towards them with a triumphant smirk on her face.

Well, until she realized she was back in an alley in Cardiff running towards the people trying to catch her. Her grin fell away pretty quickly once she managed to piece together what had happened. Margaret turned around and ran away again, once again activating her teleport.

"Not especially bright, is she?" Rose murmured as the Doctor turned on the screwdriver again, and Margaret appeared back in the alley, running towards them.

They played the game for a little bit, Margaret teleporting out and the Doctor pulling her right back, a little closer to them each time. Finally, Margaret appeared right before them, out of breath and glaring. "I could do this all day," the Doctor grinned.

Margaret put her hands up in surrender, glaring at them. "This is persecution!" She yelled shrilly. "What did I ever do to you lot?"

"You tried to kill me and blow up this entire planet," the Doctor reminded her.

"Apart from that."

* * *

After a lovely (heavy on the sarcasm) conversation with Margaret all about how she was going to try and blow up Earth (_again_) just so that she could surf off planet on her tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator, Rose, Jack, and the Doctor brought her back to the TARDIS.

Rose had a slight smile on her face, and hummed tunelessly all the way there; all to keep Jack and the Doctor from taking noet of just how angry she was. The first time they met the Slitheen, Rose had immediately decided she hated them. They were trying to blow up a planet, _her_ adopted planet, all for a profit. Had they had an actual reason, Rose might have understood—or at the very least, hated them less.

Now, here was a Slitheen again, trying to blow up Rose's planet so that she could catch a ride. It sickened Rose, and caused the forgotten hatred to flare up again. She didn't want Jack and the Doctor to know, though, because she'd been doing so well lately.

Of course, those two didn't know it, but when Rose had first come into being she'd been…angry, to say the least. And she hadn't cared who or what she took that anger out on. Through the guidance of the Doctor—and occasionally Jack—she'd become a better person, and learned to let go of that darkness.

Every so often though—such as with the Slitheen or the Daleks—that darkness threatened to return. She didn't want the others to know just how terrible a person she truly was, and so she hid it.

Even so, there were moments when just a bit of it came to the surface.

They'd decided to take Margaret back to Raxacoricofallapatorius and let the government there deal with her. Margaret informed them that she'd be killed there because her family had been sentenced to death years ago. Somehow this failed to surprise Rose.

"Since you're taking me to my death that makes you my executioners; each and every one of you..." Margaret all but purred, clearly trying to rile them. She paused for a moment to look at them all. "Let's see who can look me in the eye," she continued. She stared at Jack, who looked at her for a moment before looking away, unable to hold her gaze. She turned to the Doctor next, who glanced up briefly, but then went back to working on the console. It looked like he simply didn't care, but Rose could see the disconcertment on his face.

Finally, Margaret turned to Rose. Rose held her gaze steadily, not looking down, not blinking. She knew in her heart that she had absolutely no problem with Margaret dying, and was perfectly happy to be the one to deliver her to her death.

In the end, it was Margaret who looked away.

* * *

Margaret ended up asking for a last meal at some restaurant or another, and so she and the Doctor left. Rose decided to stay with Jack and help him hook up the extrapolator (which had enough energy to cut down the recharging time) to the TARDIS.

"So, you don't seem overly fond of our resident Slitheen," Jack prodded as they lay side by side under the console, working.

"Really? I thought I was hiding it so well," Rose murmured, only slightly sarcastically. She sighed. "No. I don't like her. She's tried to blow up this planet far too many times."

"It's alright," Jack shrugged. "It's natural to be protective of your planet."

The implications behind those words, that she was human, reminded her of her earlier conversation with Jack's future counterpart. _'No time like the present,'_ she thought to herself with a sigh.

"Jack…I need to tell you some things. Things you can't tell the Doctor, okay?"

Jack frowned, and turned his head to look at her in query.

Rose kept working, her eyes on the wires above her. "It's not time for him to know yet," she said simply.

Jack was quiet for a moment, then nodded slowly and went back to work. "Alright, let's hear it."

It took about an hour to explain everything and to answer Jack's numerous questions. She had to answer a lot of them simply with "Spoilers," but he still got most of the story. At some point, too, he had simply stopped working on connecting the extrapolator to the TARDIS, leaving Rose to work alone while she talked.

"So you're a…"

"Yeah."

"And you can…?"

"Uh huh."

"And the Doctor doesn't know?"

"Nope."

Silence. "He's going to kill me when he finds out I knew before him, isn't he?"

"Probably."

Jack laughed, apparently delighted by this. "Well, I have no clue how exactly you're even possible, but okay. Works for me."

Rose smiled, glad he was taking everything so well. He reached up to continue working, and that was when everything went to hell.

* * *

Rose was pretty sure she was only out for a few minutes; things were still exploding when she opened her eyes, which was a good sign (okay, maybe not _good_ but it was better than everything being _dead_). Jack groaned somewhere to her right, meaning he was alive, and so she ignore him.

"What the hell is happening?!" She yelled, running for the extrapolator, yanking the carefully connected wires away from it unceremoniously.

'_It's opening the rift…I can't stop it…!'_ The TARDIS' mind called to Rose, a note of panic that Rose had never heard before in her voice.

"Shit," Rose muttered, and finished disconnecting the extrapolator. She ran to the console to try and fix it when the Doctor burst in with Margaret.

"What the hell are you doing?" The Doctor yelled, running towards the console to help.

"Trying to fix it!" Rose yelled right back. So busy at the console, Rose didn't even notice as Margaret walked nonchalantly up behind her; not until her arm—her real arm, free of the skin suit, complete with claws—wrapped around her throat, one claw poised just above her carotid artery.

Jack froze, and the Doctor moved towards them, but Margaret's arm tightened threateningly. "One wrong move and she breaks like a promise," she threatened. Rose clawed at the arm about her neck, but was unable to pull it free.

"I might have known," the Doctor growled.

"I've had you bleating all night, poor baby, now shut it," the Slitheen ordered before turning her attention to Jack. "You, Fly Boy, put the extrapolator at my feet," she commanded, watching Jack closely as he obeyed. "Thank you," she said pleasantly as Jack backed away. "Just as I planned."

"I thought you needed to blow the power plant?" Rose asked, stalling, her voice hoarse. _'Do something!'_ She all but shouted at the TARDIS. She ignored the Doctor as his head turned sharply in her direction, picking up on the psychic waves coming off Rose.

"Failing that, if I were to be... arrested... then anyone capable of tracking me down would have considerable technology of their own. Therefore, they would be captivated by the extrapolator," she explained gleefully, before turning to the Doctor. "Especially a magpie mind like yours, Doctor. So the extrapolator was programmed to go to Plan B!"

'_What do you want _me_ to do?'_ the TARDIS demanded, fear now present in her voice.

Margaret tugged on Rose's hair sharply, causing her to grunt in pain. "To lock onto the nearest alien power source and open the rift," she said, continuing with her explanation. She paused to look around the TARDIS in awe. "And what a power source it found... I'm back on schedule... thanks to you." She grinned malevolently at the group.

'_Show her your heart, you dolt!'_ Rose snapped, the slow, painful crushing of her throat making her a bit snippy. _'It'll kill her!'_

"The rift's gonna convulse," Jack yelled, looking at some readouts on one of the TARDIS' screens. "She'll destroy the whole planet!"

'_You're in the way!'_ The TARDIS snapped right back at Rose.

"And you with it," Margaret grinned, pushing Rose aside while still keeping a firm grip about her neck—but most importantly, putting Rose out of the way. Margaret stepped up onto the extrapolator.

'_Now!'_

A panel directly in front of Margaret burst open, light pouring out and blinding the Slitheen for a moment. Margaret almost stepped off of the extrapolator in surprise, her grip loosening ever so slightly on Rose, before she regained herself.

"Of course, opening the rift means you'll pull this ship apart," the Doctor said calmly (though Rose was sure she could still detect some surprise in his tone) from the other side of the console.

"So sue me," Margaret retorted, her eyes glancing at the light then away, quickly.

"It's not just any old power source. It's the TARDIS. My TARDIS. The best ship in the universe," the Doctor continued.

"It will make wonderful scrap," Margaret returned nastily, clearly done with this whole bit.

"That's heart of the TARDIS. This ship's alive. You've opened its soul."

Margaret was unable to resist looking down for long, the light was so entrancing. When she finally did give in, and looked deep into the light, her arm went slack and Rose stumbled away, messaging her throat.

"It's…so bright…" Margaret murmured dreamily.

"Look at it, Margaret," Rose encouraged, staring hard at the alien she so detested. "Look inside. Look at the light."

'_Kill her!'_ She screamed at the TARDIS internally.

'_No,'_ The TARDIS returned calmly.

'_She deserves it! She deserves to die!'_

'_Everyone deserves a second chance, Wolf. Where would you be without yours?'_

Rose froze, stunned, before turning away from the scene before her. She knew what would happen now; Margaret would be turned into a less harmful state—a baby, or an egg perhaps.

And Rose was a monster.

"Thank you," Rose heard Margaret's voice behind her say, and she was surprised at how genuine it was.

The light intensified for a moment, then faded slightly. She heard the Doctor yelling, ordering them not to look at the light, then the slight creaking noises as the console closed. Then he was ordering them to press buttons and switches: time to close the rift.

Rose wiped away a single tear, then turned and got to work.

* * *

In the end, they got the rift closed, and saved the world. Again. They decided to take Margaret to hatchery on Raxacoricofallapatorius so that she could start again—hopefully with a better ending this time.

The opening of the rift had completely flooded the engines with power, so they were ready to go in no time. Once in the vortex, everyone went their separate ways to recuperate; Rose stayed in the console room, staring up at Margaret's egg, which had been placed on the console.

"Penny for your thoughts?" The Doctor asked, plopping down next to her on the jump seat, scaring her a bit.

Rose smiled, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "I'd like to think they're worth more than a penny."

The Doctor was quiet as he observed her. "You were talking to someone, mentally, during all that with Margaret." It wasn't a question. He stared at her, waiting for an answer.

Rose turned her eyes back to the egg.

He sighed. "Something's bothering you," he said, switching topics.

Rose chewed on her lip for a moment, not taking her eyes away from the egg. "Someone gave me a second chance, a long time ago," she said quietly. She paused again, and turned her eyes to the Doctor's. "Sometimes I'm reminded of just how much I didn't deserve it," she whispered.

"Don't say that," the Doctor ordered, pulling her into a hug. She rested her forehead on his shoulder. "Don't ever say that. You are fantastic. You have saved more people, and more planets…" he trailed off. Rose closed her eyes. "You saved me," he whispered.

Rose wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry. Saving him hardly mattered when she'd been the one to almost destroy him in the first place.

* * *

**Sorry this took so long! It took me a while to decide exactly where I wanted to go with it. I think this is one of my favorite chapters I've written so far, which is interesting to me, because I wrote it on two different days and went for a light feel on the first day, and a a dark feel on the second day. But I like it.**

**I hope you weren't expecting me to let y'all hear that little conversation between Rose and Jack on Rose's species, that'd just be too easy!**

**Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed. You guys are fantastic and absolutely make my day!**

**Until next time!**


	10. Chapter 10

This was a bad day.

The TARDIS—as a being that existed everywhen—had experienced _many_ bad days; but this was one of her least favorite.

Today was the day that could change everything—there were so many ways the day could end. But the one thing that did not change was that by the end of this day, two of her passengers would die.

Worst case scenario, two of her passengers would die, and the third would be written out of existence.

Best case scenario two of her passengers would die, and the third would still exist.

But there were so many little different possibilities running around, it was impossible to determine which path, which course of history, would be written today.

The TARDIS did not like not knowing what was going to happen.

For now, though, she would have to sit back and wait, watch the events unfold, and pray for the safety of her Wolf, Thief, and their Captain.

This was a very bad day.

* * *

Once, a very long time ago, the Doctor had managed to get himself trampled by a something resembling a miniature elephant—miniature in that it was smaller than your average elephant, but still large enough that it left him sore for days and gave him the worst headache he had ever had the misfortune to experience.

This was worse.

He groaned, and pulled himself to his feet, trying to remember what had happened—had he finally taken Jack up on that drinking contest?

As he stood (he was in some sort of small cupboard, that was new), the room began to spin around him—which did not help his headache at all. "What is it? What's happening?" He muttered frantically, a bit slurred, as he felt the walls, trying to stop the spinning. One of the walls gave way unexpectedly, and the Doctor fell through and landed flat on his nose (and squished it flat, he was pretty sure).

There was a female somewhere over his head shrieking in surprise, something about "them" never saying that he was coming. "But what happened? I was…" he trailed off. What had he been doing? He tried to pull himself upright, the woman helping, and ended just falling on his face again (his nose was definitely flat at this point. He made a mental note to try and fall on his ears next time).

The girl was rambling on now about a transmat beam. But that couldn't be right…the Doctor was pretty sure he'd been on the TARDIS before coming…wherever this was. A simple transmit beam wouldn't be able to penetrate his TARDIS!

He finally managed to get to his feet, and was relieved to notice the pounding in his head was dissipating.

"So what's your name, then, sweetheart?" The girl asked him, smiling kindly at him.

"The Doctor, I think," he muttered groggily, not sure how he felt about being called sweetheart. "I was, er…" he trailed off, trying to force his mind to penetrate the fog in his brain and remember what he'd been doing before all of this nonsense started. "I don't know, what happened? How-?" He looked helplessly at the girl.

"You got chosen," she explained, her voice far too chipper.

The Doctor waited for a moment, waiting for her to give him a better explanation than that. "Chosen for what?" He prompted after it became clear that she wasn't going to clarify on her own.

"You're a housemate!" She exclaimed, grinning as if this was the best news he could ever possibly hope to get. "You're in the House! Isn't that brilliant?"

Two other voices started complaining from the couch, and the Doctor realized there were more people in "the House" than he thought. He tuned out their complaining, looking around the room instead, and taking stock of his resources. Which were minimal. And where the hell were Rose and Jack? If this was their idea of a joke…

"Would the Doctor please come to the Diary Room?" A pleasant but oddly mechanical voice asked, causing the Doctor to stare up at the ceiling in confusion. A door appeared behind him, drawing his attention. Hoping for a way out, he went through the door, and found himself in a small room with a plush chair.

"You are live on channel forty-four thousand; please do not swear," the same mechanical voice informed him.

The Doctor thunked down into the chair. "You have _got _to be kidding me," he muttered with raised eyebrows.

* * *

Rose groaned, trying to curl into a smaller ball where she was curled up on the floor. Her head hadn't hurt this badly since she was first shoved into this body. Why did her head hurt? Had Jack convinced her to drink with him? He had been after that for a while…

She lifted her head slowly, looking around the dark room. "What happened?" She groaned blearily.

"It's alright," a man who was crouched next to her assured her, watching her. "It's just the transmat, does your head in."

Rose pulled herself into a sitting position, frowning. Transmat. That couldn't be right.

"Get a bit of amnesia," the man continued. "What's your name?"

"…Rose," she responded after a moment. Even her name had taken a moment to come to the forefront of her brain. "But…where's the Doctor? And Jack?" She muttered, looking around as if expecting them to jump out of the shadows.

The man ignored her and carried on with his own train of thought. "Just remember, do what the Anne Droid says. Don't provoke it. The Anne Droid's word is law."

"Android?" Rose asked, confused. What the hell kind of place had she landed in?

"Positions everyone! Thank you!" An unseen voice called out.

Rose looked around, alarmed as everyone (she hadn't even noticed there were other people in here!) began rushing about. The man hauled her to her feet, pulling her in the direction the others were going.

"I was traveling… with the Doctor and, and…Jack. They wouldn't just leave me…would they?" She murmured as she was led along. Maybe they had. It wouldn't have been the first time…

"That's enough chat!" The voice from earlier called. Rose was able to see him this time, though. He wore a head set and carried a clipboard, looking like a manager at a television station. "Positions! Final Call!"

Rose was led over to a set of six podiums, all surrounding a raised platform where an inactive robot was sitting, technicians surrounding it. "But…I'm not supposed to be here…" Rose muttered, rubbing her head.

"Well, it says Rose on the podium," the man who had been helping her commented.

Rose frowned and looked at the front of the podium she'd been positioned behind. And it did in fact say Rose. The man hurried to stand behind his own podium, which proclaimed that his name was Roderick. Rose wandered back behind her own podium. "I must be going mad…" she murmured to herself. Well, it had always been a matter of time.

Rose looked slowly over the set—she really was in a television studio. "Hold on…" she muttered, taking in the podiums and the robot, the penny finally dropping. "This looks like…but it can't be…"

The android sprang to life in front of her.

"Android. Anne. Droid," she whispered.

"Welcome, to 'The Weakest Link!'" the Android shouted.

Rose wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or put her head through her podium.

* * *

As it turned out, houseguests who were evicted were incinerated rather than simply released. The Doctor had been a bit surprised at that particular revelation, but the other houseguests just shrugged it off as completely normal.

He'd been dropped into a mad house.

On the Brightside, his memories had finally returned. His main goal now was to find Rose and Jack. He was especially worried about Rose; she hadn't been herself since Raxacoricofallapatorius. She'd been…quieter. Slower to smile. And she always had this look on her face…it was a look that scared the Doctor quite a bit, because he knew that look.

It was the look of someone who understood themselves far too well; the look of someone who knew exactly what they were capable of, and was ashamed of it. It was a look he'd worn quite frequently.

But that look on Rose…it reminded him that he still knew next to nothing about the woman he'd chosen to travel with. Most of the time he just thought her a kind, passionate woman with a knack for surprising him; he hated being reminded of the darker side she harbored, mostly because that dark side reminded him that he'd put his trust in a woman he didn't know.

And why did he trust her? She'd saved his life a few times, sure, but he'd saved hers, too. He'd watched her kill a dalek in cold blood (not that he wouldn't have done the same, but still), and the hatred she'd harbored for the Slitheen had been concerning. Certainly she leaned towards some violent tendencies that he wasn't comfortable with.

But then she'd grin at him and damn it all if that smile didn't make him willing to put his life, and the lives of others, into her hands.

He needed to find her.

Working through a hunch (a hunch that had about a sixty percent chance of getting him vaporized, which was better odds than usual), he managed to get out of the Big Brother House and out onto the satellite that it sat in. He brought Lynda, the girl who'd helped him when he'd first woken up, with him. She was sweet, and would've been dead meat in that house.

As he looked around the satellite, his eyes widened as he realized he'd been there before. "This is Satellite Five!" He exclaimed in realization. He went through a side door, and made his way to a control panel, working on it with his sonic screwdriver. "No guards. That makes a change. You'd think a big business like Satellite Five would be armed to the teeth," he said conversationally, not actually paying much attention as he worked.

Satisfied with the control panel, he left the room and went back out to the main one, testing the walls with his screwdriver.

"No one's called it Satellite Five in ages," Lynda commented, watching him with interest. "It's the Game Station now. Hasn't been Satellite Five in about a hundred years."

The Doctor absently told Lynda about his time on Satellite Five as he worked on getting another door open. She in turn told him about the different shows that were broadcasted from the satellite, and a bit about her culture as well. Apparently one could be executed for not having a license for the telly now. Which, of course, did not fit in with any of the history he knew—and he knew all of it.

"Who are you though, really, Doctor?" Lynda asked curiously.

"Doesn't matter," the Doctor said simply, moving on to another door. None of them wanted to open, and he was starting to get annoyed.

"Well it does to me," Lynda persisted. "I've just put my life in your hands."

"I'm just a traveler, wandering past," he muttered, examining the lock on the new door. Maybe setting sixteen would work… "Believe it or not, all I'm after is a quiet life." He wasn't even entirely sure he believed that last part anymore.

"So…" Lynda started hesitantly. "if we get out of here, what're you gonna do? Just…wander off again?"

"Fast as I can." After he'd found Rose and Jack, of course.

"So…I could come with ya," Lynda suggested tentatively.

The Doctor paused, and turned away from the lock to consider her. She was sweet, she really was, but was she up for the kind of life he led? And did he really want that many people on the TARDIS?

On the other hand…Lynda was simple, he could understand her. Sweet girl, just wanted to see more of the world than she already had…maybe just a slight thirst for adventure…simple. There was nothing simple about Rose, nothing easy to understand. And Jack…well, there was nothing simple there, at any rate. It might be nice to have someone along that he didn't have to constantly play mind games with.

"Maybe you could," he allowed with a small smile.

"I wouldn't get in the way!" She exclaimed brightly.

"I wouldn't mind if you did," the Doctor grinned, growing fonder of the idea. "Not a bad idea, Lynda with a Y."

Of course, Rose and Jack would still be there, too, Lynda would just be his…distraction. His dose of normality and simple. Yeah.

The Doctor finally managed to get one of the doors to open, and let them out onto an observation deck. But the Earth was wrong, so very, very wrong. The whole thing was grey and dark and ugly; there were only a few splotches of light, and they were few and far between. As he talked with Lynda (and he may have angrily called her species Sheep) he finally came to realize that the world, her world, had been like this for a century. Ever since the news disappeared one day, and no one knew what to do.

"Oh my," he whispered in horror, staring down at the dying planet. "I made this world."

"Hey handsome!" A familiar voice called. The Doctor tuned, and watched Jack come strutting towards them, grinning. "Good to see ya! Any sign of Rose?"

The Doctor stared at him for a moment, debating whether or not he should ask about the large gun Jack had strapped to himself, before deciding now was not the time. "Can't you track her down?" He demanded. Jack had found him, surely he could find Rose?

Jack shook his head. "She must still be inside the games; all the rooms are shielded."

Something wasn't right. If he could get out, and Jack could figure a way out, Rose would have been able to find a way out, too. But she hadn't…that was a bad sign.

He turned to the computer fiddling with it angrily and trying not to panic. "If we can just get inside this computer…" he muttered, hitting the computer a couple of times for good measure. "She's _got_ to be here somewhere!" For all his complaining about Rose, he was worried about her, especially now that he knew she hadn't broken out of her game yet; Rose was better at escaping than even him!

"Well, you better hurry up," Jack said unhelpfully. "These games don't have a happy ending."

"You think I don't know that?!" The Doctor snapped, his panic bleeding through for just a moment.

Jack looked at him for a moment, considering, then slipped off his vortex manipulator and handed it to him. "There you go." The Doctor snatched it, and turned to the computer. "Patch that in. It's programmed to find her. Her biology is unique enough that it shouldn't take too long to find her."

"Thanks," the Doctor muttered, attaching wires to the manipulator and making a mental note to break the device before Jack could break history. Again.

"Wait," the Doctor paused, and straightening, running through Jack's statement before turning to look at the man, who was flirting with Lynda with a Y. "What do you mean her biology is unique enough?" Jack froze. "Why do you know anything about her biology?" He wouldn't make eye contact now. "She told you, didn't she?"

Jack sighed, and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah. Said something about me needing to know sooner and it wasn't time for you yet," he muttered.

"Sorry what?" Lynda asked, frowning.

The Doctor ignored her. "Why do you get to know sooner?" He demanded.

"Do you really think now is the time, Doctor?" Jack snapped.

The Doctor blinked, then nodded in agreement and turned back to the computer. The system beeped after a moment, and the Doctor hit the computer angrily. "It's not compatible!" He growled, glaring at the offending piece of technology. "This stupid system doesn't make sense."

Muttering to himself, he ripped the front of the computer away to reveal the circuitry, and started trying to patch the manipulator directly into the system. "This place should be a basic broadcaster. The systems are twice as complicated. It's more than just television… this station's transmitting something else…" he muttered, thinking aloud as he worked.

"Like what?" Jack asked curiously, watching him work.

"I don't know!" The Doctor growled, annoyed with everything and everyone.

After a lot of work (and cursing. Definitely a lot of cursing.) the Doctor let out a triumphant yell as the manipulator beeped and started giving him information. "Found her!" He cried, pulling the manipulator away and tossing it to Jack. "Floor 407!"

Lynda's eyes widened in horror. "Oh my god! She's with the Anne Droid!" She shouted frantically. "You've got to get her out of there!"

The Doctor needed no more encouragement than that, and took off running. He had no idea what an Anne Droid was (though it sounded somewhat familiar), but Lynda's fearful reaction was enough to convince him that whatever it was, Rose was in very serious, very immediate danger.

The raced into a lift, the Doctor tapping his foot impatiently as the lift climbed at speed that was matched only by the inhabitants of Nethion 6. Who were slugs.

The doors finally opened and the Doctor raced out. He could hear a robotic voice in the distance, and he thought he heard Rose's voice. "Game Room 6, which one is it?" He yelled frantically.

"With two votes, Rose, you have been eliminated."

No no no no no…

"This one!" Lynda yelled.

The Doctor barreled towards her, the screwdriver pointing at the door before he even got there.

"I earned all of our money that round!" Rose yelled from behind the door, fear in her voice. Oh, Rassilon, _no_… "You're cowards, every last one of you!" Rose screamed.

The door flew open and the Doctor ran inside. "You are the weakest link, goodbye!" The Anne Droid (which made sense now) was saying as they burst in. Their entrance, however, was enough of a distraction for Rose to be able to dive out of the way of the beam.

The Anne Droid turned to face the Doctor, and he stared at it as its jaw unhinged, revealing the barrel of the disintegrator beam. "Watch out!" Rose yelled, running towards him.

It was as if the whole world had suddenly gone into slow motion. The Doctor tried to run towards Rose, to get out of the path of the beam, but both Rose and the Anne Droid were faster. The Anne Droid fired, and Rose leaped in front of him, taking the beam and turning into a pile of ash just a few feet away from him.

The world seemed oddly silent, save for an odd buzzing in his ears. He slipped his fingers through the ash that used to be Rose (and when exactly did he take those few steps forward?) unable to believe it was true (and when exactly had he fallen to his knees?), unable to believe that she was gone.

He spent an eternity by that pile, trying to believe what he'd just seen. Rose was dead. And there was nothing he could do to bring her back.

He became dimly aware of the rest of the world when a guard hauled him to his feet, pressing a gun to his head. His small eternity had apparently only been a few seconds; not nearly long enough. He and the other two (what a surprise that there are still multiple people in the world) were led away, and the Doctor allowed one tear to fall, before forcibly changing the gears in his head—hiding the sense of loss behind a storm of rage.

They would all pay.

He remained silent as they were questioned, booked, and locked in a cell. He exchanged one look with Jack, and then stared at a wall, waiting. There was no need to rush anymore.

When a security guard finally came to open the door to their cell, the Doctor turned to look at Jack. "Let's do it."

The Doctor walked behind Jack as he cleared a path, knocking out the security guards, and securing weapons; the Doctor even grabbed a gun, and actually debated using it for a moment.

Back into the lift and up to Floor Five Hundred. _'Where the walls are made of gold,'_ the Doctor thought bitterly. Perhaps he'd paint them red.

He took a deep breath before the doors opened, quelling his anger somewhat; Rose wouldn't want him to be a murderer, not again.

Jack took charge, becoming the voice for their little group. "Okay, move away from the desk!" He ordered, brandishing his gun. "Nobody try anything clever. Everybody clears!"

The staff scattered, and the Doctor made his way towards a woman with wires connected to her, her eyes blank. He decided he would try later to muster up some righteous fury for the way she'd been treated; he had other priorities at the moment.

"Who's in charge here?" He demanded, his gun pointed at her. The woman stared blankly ahead, reciting a countdown. "This satellite's more than a Game Station," the Doctor insisted. Still nothing but count down. "Who killed Rose Tyler?" He finally growled.

"All staff are reminded that solar flares—"

He interrupted, sick of her unrelated monotone responses. "Answer me!" He bellowed.

"…in delta point one." She finished.

"She can't reply," a programmer spoke up timidly, watching the Doctor and his gun nervously.

The Doctor swung around to face the programmer, the movement of his gun making them all flinch.

"Don't shoot!" Another programmer yelled desperately.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh don't be so thick," he grumbled. "Like I was ever going to shoot." No need to mention he had considered it. He tossed his gun to the programmer who had first spoken up, who caught it automatically, still looking terrified.

"Captain, we've got more guards on the way up, secure the exits," the Doctor ordered brusquely, looking away from the programmers. Jack responded in the affirmative before running off. The Doctor turned back to the programmer. "Now, you were saying?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"But…I've got your gun," the programmer pointed out, horribly confused.

The Doctor sighed in annoyance. Stupid apes. "So shoot me. Why can't she respond?" He demanded.

The programmer hesitantly put the gun down before answering. "Sorry, um, the Controller is linked to the transmissions. The entire output goes through her brain; you're not a member of staff so she doesn't recognize your existence," he explained nervously.

"What's her name?" The Doctor asked, turning to face the controller now.

"I don't know. She was installed when she was five years old. That's the only life she's ever known."

The Doctor was finding that the righteous anger he had put off before was coming to him much easier now.

"Door's sealed. We should be safe for about ten minutes," Jack called over.

"Keep an eye on 'em," the Doctor called back without looking.

"But that stuff you were saying about something going on with the Game Station—I think you're right," the programmer spoke up hesitantly, as if unsure that the Doctor was the right person to be telling his concerns to. "Unauthorized transmits…it's been going on for years."

"Show me," the Doctor ordered, following the programmer to a computer. They looked through files for a few minutes before the screens started flickering with static and the power turned itself off, emergency lights providing the only illumination. The programmer explained that it was only the solar flares, and the Doctor resisted the urge to grind his teeth. He wanted, no needed, to keep moving. Anything to keep him from remembering that he failed yet another companion, that yet another life was added to his list of casualties. From remembering that it had been Rose.

"Doctor…" a voice called.

He turned, his eyes locking onto the Controller, who was calling to him. He hurried over to her.

"Doctor? Where's the Doctor?" She asked, her milky eyes still staring blindly ahead.

"I'm here," the Doctor told her, eyes glued to hers.

"Can't see. I'm blind. So blind. All my life, blind. All I can see is numbers, but I saw you."

"What do you want?" The Doctor prodded, forgetting to be patient.

"Solar-flares hiding me. They can't hear me—my—my masters, they always listen but they can't hear me now. The sun... the sun is so bright..." she trailed off, her voice quiet and dreamy, almost as if she wasn't completely present. The Doctor doubted very much that she was.

"Who are your masters?" He asked, a worrisome feeling in his stomach. Whatever this was, it wasn't going to be good.

"They wired my head, their name is forbidden. They control my thoughts, my masters... my masters, I had to be careful. They monitor the transmissions but they don't watch the programs. I could hide you inside the games." She seemed intent on not answering any question directly.

"My friend died inside your games," the Doctor informed her coldly. He was more than willing to place the blame of Rose's lost life on this woman. She'd brought them here, after all; chosen where they would be placed. If she'd only left them alone, or even just placed them in the same game…

"Doesn't matter."

"Don't you _dare_ tell me that," the Doctor whispered dangerously, his rage returning to the surface.

"They've been hiding," the Controller continued, heedless to the Doctor's rage and hurt. "My masters, hiding in the dark space, watching and shaping the Earth... so, so, so many years... they've always been there. Guiding humanity, hundreds and hundreds of years—"

"Who are they?" The Doctor demanded, cutting her off. He had no time for her cryptic messages and hints.

"They wait. They plan and grow in numbers, they're strong now. So strong, my masters—"

"Who are they?" The Doctor persisted, cutting her off again.

The Controller suddenly turned her sightless eyes to him. "But they speak of you," she whispered. "My masters, they fear the Doctor."

"Tell me!" The Doctor yelled, stepping closer to her. "Who are they?!"

The lights flickered back on, and the Controller looked ahead again. "Twenty, nineteen, eighteen," she counted down, voice flat.

He turned to the programmer who'd he spoken to earlier. "When's the next solar flare?" He demanded angrily.

"Two years' time," he responded, still staring at the Controller.

"Fat lot of good that is," the Doctor muttered, turning away.

"Found the TARDIS!" Jack called, appearing from a side room.

"We're not leaving now," the Doctor glared.

"No," Jack agreed, grinning madly. The Doctor wanted to hit him. "But the TARDIS worked it out," Jack unceremoniously shoved a programmer from his chair. "You'll wanna watch this!" He called cheerfully.

The Doctor turned reluctantly to watch. They should be planning, or hacking into something. Not…whatever this nonsense was.

"Lynda, could you stand over there for me, please?" Jack asked kindly, pointing to an empty bit of floor. After a moment, Lynda moved to comply, and stood away from the others. "Everybody watching?" Jack asked, glancing around before turning to the computer. "Okay, three, two, one…" He pressed a button and the familiar (hated) disintegrator beam came down from the ceiling and vaporized Lynda, leaving behind another pile of ashes.

"But you've killed her!" The Doctor yelled, outraged. It was not enough for him to lose his best friend, apparently; now he had to have the life of that poor innocent girl on his conscious as well. He'd kill Jack, he would.

"Oh, do ya think?" Jack asked, grinning. Before the Doctor could even open his mouth to threaten Jack's life, Jack had pressed a button on the computer again, and Lynda appeared next to the Doctor, completely unharmed.

"…What the hell was that?" Lynda groaned, clutching her head (okay, mostly unharmed).

The Doctor stared blankly at Jack, not daring to hope.

"It's a transmat beam, not a disintegrator," Jack explained, standing up. "A secondary transmat system." Oh, Rassilon, he was actually saying it. It was possible, no, she _was_… "People don't get killed in the games! They get transported across space! Doctor," Jack paused, and grinned so widely he threatened to split his face in two, "Rose is still alive!"

The Doctor laughed, choking back a sob, and threw his arms around Jack's neck. Rose was alive. Alive. _Alive_.

He pulled away from Jack and ran to the consoles, dashing about with renewed energy. "She's out there somewhere!" He yelled, sonicing the consoles, trying to find his Rose.

"Doctor!"

His head jerked up, turning to the pained face of the Controller. She was fighting for control, jerking herself away from the manipulation of her masters, and it was killing her. "Coordinates five point six point one!" She gasped out.

The Doctor frantically typed them in, unwilling to give up any information Rose. "Don't!" He called as he typed. "The solar flare's gone, they'll hear you!"

"Point four three four—" she gasped and cried out in pain, her milky eyes darting this way and that as she battled some unknown, unseen enemy. "Oh, no, masters, I defy you!" She yelled, her voice cracking. "Stigma seven seven-!" She was cut off by her own scream, and by the time the Doctor looked up, she was gone, nothing left but the wires she'd been hooked to and a pile of dust.

"They took her…" he murmured. He took a minute to mourn for the poor woman who had never known freedom, before getting to work to find Rose.

The programmer that had been helping them since the beginning proved to be even more useful as he gave Jack as disk of all the unauthorized transmats, in hopes that they would be able to get the final numbers for the coordinates from them.

Jack, of course, took the opportunity to start flirting.

"There's a time and a place!" The Doctor called in annoyance. Now that he knew Rose was alive, his primary focus was to get her back in one piece. Whatever they were dealing with, they were obviously dangerous, and he didn't want Rose with them any longer than necessary.

The Doctor explained to the others in the room his theory that whoever was doing all this, had been doing it for a long time; starting with the Jagrafess a hundred years ago. Someone was manipulating humanity, and he wanted to know why.

"Click on this," Jack said as he handed a small device to the Doctor. The Doctor obediently (which was a first) did as he was told, and an image of space materialized above their heads. A map, the Doctor realized.

"The transmat delivers to that point," Jack explained, pointing. "Right at the edge of the solar system."

"There's nothing there," a female programmer protested.

"It lookslike nothing. 'Cause that's what this satellite does. Underneath the transmission, there's another signal..." The Doctor explained, staring up at the empty spot.

"Doing what?" Their programmer asked.

"Hiding whatever's out there. Hiding it from sonar, radar, scanner..." he trailed off for a moment, thinking. "There's something sitting right on top of Planet Earth... but it's completely invisible. If I can cancel the signal…" he pressed a few buttons on the computer before looking back up at the map. His eyes widened. It couldn't be…

"That's impossible," Jack protested angrily, but the Doctor heard the fear. "I know those ships…they were destroyed!"

"Obviously they survived," the Doctor whispered, horrified as he took in the over two hundred Dalek ships sitting at the edge of the solar system. That was what had Rose.

He had to get her out of there.

He ran to the computers, typing commands furiously as he worked to establish a communication link with the ship where the transmat signals went. In minutes, he had an image up on the main screen. What he saw made his blood run cold, but also made him breathe a sigh of relief.

His Rose (when exactly has she become his?) was stationed in between three Daleks, and looking downright furious.

"I WILL TALK TO THE DOCTOR!" One of the abominations yelled.

Sarcasm or anger; decisions, decisions. "Oh, will you? That's nice. Hello!" Sarcasm it is, then. He waved at them mockingly before letting the grin fall from his face.

"THE DALEK STRATEGEM NEARS COMPLETEION. THE FLEET IS ALMOST READY. YOU WILL NOT INTERVENE," the Dalek ordered, apparently oblivious to his sarcasm. Ah, well. Anger was more satisfying anyway.

"Oh really?" He asked coldly. "Why's that then?"

"WE HAVE YOUR ASSOCIATE. YOU WILL OBEY OR SHE WILL BE EXTERMINATED."

Rose glared defiantly at the screen. The Doctor watched her for a moment before his eyes flicked between the Daleks.

"No," he said simply. Rose seemed a bit surprised, but her glare didn't wavier; probably thought he was choosing the greater good over her or some such nonsense. Well, she was in for a surprise…

"EXPLAIN YOURSELF," the Dalek commanded after a pause.

"I said no," the Doctor repeated.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS NEGATIVE?"

"It means no."

"BUT SHE WILL BE DESTROYED!" Obviously this Dalek didn't know him very well.

"No!" The Doctor snapped, standing from his computer chair and glaring at them. "'Cause this is what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna rescue her," he informed them. A corner of Rose's mouth lifted in a smirk, which was all the encouragement he needed. "I'm gonna save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek Fleet, and then I'm gonna save the Earth, and then just to finish off, I'm gonna wipe every last _stinking_ Dalek outta the sky!"

"BUT YOU HAVE NO WEAPONS! NO DEFENCES! NO PLANS!" The Dalek protested, either in fury or confusion; it was hard to tell.

The Doctor grinned madly. "Yeah. And doesn't that just scare you to death?" He paused for a moment, then looked at Rose. "Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm coming to get you." He terminated the communication link, and ran for the TARDIS.

* * *

**I'm back! Did you miss me? I'm going to try and get the next one up tomorrow, promise.**

**Anywhoo, thanks for all the lovely comments while I was away! It's great to know there are people out there who actually enjoy this. Thanks also to those who favorited and reviewed!**

**Until next time!**


	11. Chapter 11

Rose was still smirking as the communications screen went blank, the Daleks whirling about in distress around her. Really, of all the bloody creatures in the universe, it had to be the damnable pepper pots. Give her Judoon, Cybermen, hell, even Slitheen over Daleks, any day.

One of the Daleks turned to face her. "YOU KNOW THE DOCTOR! YOU UNDERSTAND HIM! YOU WILL PREDICT HIS ACTIONS!" The Dalek screamed.

Rose turned an icy glare onto its eyestalk. "Not bloody likely, mate," she retorted.

The Dalek moved closer to her, moving its egg-beater like gun threateningly. "PREDICT! PREDICT! PREDICT!" It screamed, seeming slightly hysterical. Rose just smiled coolly at it.

"TARDIS DETECTED! IN FLIGHT!" A different Dalek yelled, distracting both Rose and the Dalek threatening her.

"LAUNCH MISSILES! EXTERMINATE!" The Dalek in front of her ordered.

Rose stiffened. The TARDIS didn't have any defenses that she knew of to protect from missiles. Oh, gods, she hoped the Doctor had more of plan than he let on; otherwise, he and the TARDIS were toast…

She watched on a screen as the missiles flew towards the TARDIS, and the TARDIS made no move to dodge them. Her hands tightened into fists as the missiles exploded, flame and smoke making it impossible to discern whether or not the TARDIS had survived. "C'mon…_c'mon_," she whispered desperately, her eyes glued to the screen.

A faint, familiar noise filled the Dalek ship, making Rose blink in surprise, then laugh. It was the TARDIS! Even as she realized, the TARDIS began to materialize around her…and a Dalek.

"Rose, get down!" The Doctor shouted once the engines had stopped and everything had solidified.

Rose didn't need to be told twice, and immediately dropped to the ground. "EXTERMINATE!" the Dalek screamed, and fired at Jack.

Jack used his gun (where in the hell had he gotten that monstrosity?!) to send the ray back at the Dalek, making it explode.

"You did it!" Rose exclaimed leaping to her feet. The Doctor was there in an instant, pulling her into a tight hug. "Oh, hello," she said, a bit surprised, and returning the embrace. "Miss me?"

"Nah, only a bit," the Doctor responded with a grin, pulling away slightly. He squeezed her arms and looked her over for a moment, as if checking to make sure she was uninjured. Apparently satisfied, he let her go and went over to examine the remains of the Dalek.

'_Hello, Red. Nice timing,'_ Rose called to the TARDIS, taking advantage of the Doctor's distraction. The TARDIS hummed, but elected not to respond verbally.

"Hey, don't I get a hug?" Jack demanded, setting his gun down and moving around the console.

"Come here," Rose chuckled.

"I was talking to him," Jack grinned, pointing at the Doctor.

Rose laughed and threw her arms around the captain. "Welcome home!" He said, squeezing her for a moment before letting go.

"Nice shootin, there, Tex," Rose said in a horrible American accent, nodding at the destroyed Dalek.

"Oh, you were lucky," Jack shrugged, waving her off. "I was just a one-shot wonder. Drained the gun of all its power supply. Now it's just a piece of junk."

They moved over next to the Doctor to look at the remains. The armor had been blasted away, and they could see the withered, fleshy mutant inside that was the actual Dalek. Rose wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"I thought these were all dead?" Jack asked, peering at the ugly creature. "One minute they're the greatest threat in the universe, the next minute they vanished out of time and space."

Rose shook her head. "They went off to fight a bigger war," she murmured, backing away from the remains; she'd seen enough.

"The Time War," the Doctor agreed, his voice quiet. He threw her a look, as if surprised that she knew about the Time War, but had somehow expected it at the same time.

"I thought that was just a legend," Jack said, surprised.

The Doctor shook his head. "I was there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords. With the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them…" he trailed off for a moment, glaring at the smoking remains. "I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing."

Rose placed a hand on his shoulder. The Time War must've been much more recent for him than she'd thought, if he was still this torn up about it…and he didn't even know the full extent to how much the Dalek's had survived, and thrived, after the war.

"Right, enough chin wagging," the Doctor declared, forcing some cheer into his voice. Rose raised an eyebrow, and let her hand fall from his shoulder. "Let's go meet the neighbors." He grinned, rubbing his hands together, and all but waltzed out the front door.

Rose sighed, shaking her head. "That man is going to explode from repressed emotion someday," she muttered, following him outside, Jack in tow.

The Dalek's were already firing at them when they came outside, their cries of "EXTERMINATE!" filling the air. Rose leaned against the TARDIS as she watched the force field that surrounded the ship stop the beams a few feet away from them.

The Dalek's gave up after a moment, apparently realizing their current strategy wasn't getting them anywhere fast. "Is that it?" The Doctor demanded, still grinning. "Useless! Null points!" Turning to Jack and Rose, "That force field can keep out anything," he told them, conspiratorially.

"Almost anything," Jack qualified.

Rose and the Doctor stared at him for a moment. "Yes, but I wasn't going to tell them that, thanks."

"Sorry."

The Doctor shook his head, and turned away to face the Dalek's. "D'you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld?" Ah, so it was time for the "Oncoming Storm" spiel, was it? "The Oncoming Storm." Yep. "You might've removed all your emotions... but I reckon that right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left. And that's fear."

The Dalek's eyestalks twitched nervously, making Rose smirk.

"Doesn't it just _burn_ when you face me? So, tell me—how did you survive the Time War?" The Doctor's voice had gone deadly as he glared out at the sea of Daleks.

"THEY SURVIVED THROUGH ME." A deeper than normal Dalek voice called out.

"No," Rose whispered, pushing off of the TADIS to stand up right. A large Dalek, towering over them, was illuminated, making it visible for the first time. The mutant that controlled it was visible in a glass tube slightly beneath the normal, if larger, battle armor.

"Captain," Rose whispered hoarsely, as it seemed the Doctor had been stunned into silence, "this is the Emperor of the Daleks."

"YOU DESTROYED US DOCTOR. THE DALEK RACE DIED IN YOUR INFERNO, BUT MY SHIP SURVIVED, FALLING THROUGH TIME. CRIPPLED, BUT ALIVE."

"I get it," the Doctor said, finding his voice, apparently. The Daleks began screaming at the Doctor for interrupting, but the Doctor simply turned a glare on them. "I thinkyou're forgetting something," he said, his voice far too calm to mean anything good. "I'm the Doctor. And if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got _one _way of stopping me. So if anybody's gonna shut up, it's _YOU_!" He yelled the last part so loudly, so angrily, that the Daleks all backed up a bit in fear.

The Doctor turned back to the Emperor. "Okey doke. So where were we?" He asked lightly. Rose put her head in her hand.

"WE WAITED HERE IN THE DARK SPACE, DAMAGED BUT REBUILDING. CENTURIES PASSED, AND WE QUIETLY INFILTRATED THE SYSTEMS OF EARTH. HARVESTING THE WASTE OF HUMANITY. THE PRISONERS, THE REFUGEES, THE DISPOSSESSED; THEY ALL CAME TO US. THE BODIES WERE FILTERED, PULED, SIFTED."

Rose lifted her head, a fierce glare adorning her face. Those were _her_ people that they'd chosen to mess with! _Her_ people that they had corrupted, mutated, destroyed.

"THE SEED OF THE HUMAN RACE IS PERVERTED," the Emperor continued. "ONLY ONE CELL IN A MILLION WAS FIT TO BE NUTURED."

"So, you created an army of Daleks out of the dead," the Doctor surmised, anger in his tone.

"That makes them half-human," Rose pointed out angrily, willing the Daleks to see their own corruption, their own impurities.

"THOSE WORDS ARE BLASPHEMY!" The Emperor roared. The other Daleks began screaming in agreement, demanding that Rose not blaspheme. "EVERYTHING HUMAN HAS BEEN PURGED. I CULTIVATED PURE AND BLESSED DALEK."

"Since when did the Dalek's gain a concept of blasphemy?" The Doctor asked, sounding uneasy. Rose glanced at him, and realized he was right. Dalek's recognized nothing but hatred and death; blasphemy would be about as foreign a concept to them as love.

"I REACHED INTO THE DIRT AND MADE NEW LIFE!" The Dalek Emperor roared. "I AM THE GOD OF ALL DALEKS!"

"WORSHIP HIM! WORSHIP HIM! WORSHIP HIM!" The other Daleks chanted.

"They're insane!" The Doctor muttered, turning to Rose and Jack, and looking almost shocked. "A hundred years hiding in silence - that's enough to drive anyonemad."

Rose wondered if he was speaking from experience on that last part. As alone as these Dalek's had been after the war, the Doctor had been even more alone; and she didn't even know for how long he had suffered in that silence.

"But it's worse than that," Rose commented, glaring at the Daleks, her voice hard. "Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity," she scoffed. She could spare no pity for these monsters.

"You hate your own existence," the Doctor agreed, but his voice was almost pitying. He shook his head. "And that makes them more deadly than ever." He looked back up at the Emperor. "We're leaving," he informed it, then turned to walk back to the TARDIS, Jack following.

Rose stayed out for a moment longer, listening as the Dalek's screamed, ordering them to stay. They shot at the TARDIS again, but the force field kept her safe. "One way or another, this will end today…" she whispered to herself, before turning back to the TARDIS and hurrying inside.

Inside, the Doctor was dashing about the controls, his face grim. The engines groaned as they left the Dalek ship behind, and the Doctor paused for a moment, staring blankly at the console. Rose watched him from a distance; he needed solitude at the moment, and besides: she was in no shape to give anyone any comfort, her body quivering with rage as it was.

The ship landed, and the Doctor seemed to regain himself, leading the way out. "Turn everything up," he ordered, striding over to the controls. "All transmissions, wide open, full power. Do it now!"

Rose looked around the room, recognizing it as Floor Five Hundred; though it looked a bit different without all the ice and the giant alien hanging from the ceiling.

Rose looked around the room, trying to come up with a plan (since she was pretty sure the Doctor was just playing it by ear) and ignoring the conversation around her. Something to do with Earth being defenseless (though, honestly, that was just par for the course), and some girl had refused to leave the satellite.

"Oh my god," one of the programmers whispered, and his tone caught Rose's attention. "The fleet is moving," he told them, looking up, his face ashen. "They're on their way."

Everyone froze for a moment, and a look of panic swept across every face in the room. The Doctor was the first one to start moving again; he dashed around the room, ripping armfuls of wires from the ground, the computers—anywhere he could.

"Dalek plan—big mistake," he started saying, speaking almost too quickly to be understood. "Because what have they left me with? Anyone? Rose? Oh, come on—it's obvious. A great big transmitter—this station."

Rose watched him carefully, her mind whirling through the possibilities. He had a plan now, that much was obvious, but given their current situation, and location, she wondered just how bad his plan would be.

"If I can change the signal," he continued, manic now, fold it back, sequence it—anyone?"

Everything snapped into place. "You've got to be kidding me," Rose said, her voice flat. If he was thinking what she thought he was thinking…

"Give the woman a medal!" The Doctor crowed, not even looking up from his wires.

"A delta wave?" Rose snapped. Didn't he know there wasn't enough _time_ to build one properly?

"A delta wave!" The Doctor agreed, grinning.

"What's a delta wave?" The girl, Linda, Rose thought, asked.

"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy. Fries your brain; stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed!" Jack explained, sounding as apprehensive as Rose felt.

"And this place can transmit a _massive_ wave! Wipe out the Daleks!" The Doctor said excitedly.

"Well, get started then, and do it!" Linda encouraged. Rose glared at her, unseen.

"Trouble is," the Doctor started. _'Oh, thank the gods,'_ Rose thought to herself, thinking he was seeing that this plan was futile and they needed to come up with another one. "wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine," Rose rolled her eyes, "should take about, oh, three days?" He paused for a moment, and looked at a programmer. "How long until the fleet gets here?"

The programmer glanced at a computer screen. "Twenty-two minutes."

The Doctor just carried on ripping out wires, muttering to himself. Everyone scattered around the room, trying to prepare. Jack said something about a force field before disappearing. Rose made her way over to the Doctor, and crouched down next to him. "What the hell are you thinking?" She demanded, keeping her voice low so as not to alert the others in the room that their plan was shit. "_If_ you can get a delta wave working before the Daleks get here, you have no way of refining it. It'll kill everyone!"

"I know," the Doctor muttered grimly, his face losing the manic smile it had been sporting for the past few minutes. "But it's the only way." He set down the cables he'd been working on, and gripped her shoulders, searching her eyes. "Don't you see, Rose? _It's the only way_. If I don't do this, everyone here, and on Earth, will die anyone. They'll be taken and stripped of everything that makes them human, and turned into Daleks. It's better to die a human." His eyes begged for understanding, and, on some level, Rose did. But he was talking of destroying an entire planet.

"There has to be another way," she argued, not ready to let it go. "There _has_ to be something we haven't thought of yet!"

"Rose, I—"

"I will _not_ let you destroy my planet!" She whispered harshly, having the presence of mind enough not to shout the damning sentence. She glared at him fiercely for a moment, ignoring the way he'd flinched. "There's another way. Another answer. We just haven't found it yet." She said firmly.

The Doctor shook his head sadly. "Not this time."

Rose glared in silence, then stood up, marching to the TARDIS.

"Where are you going?" The Doctor called, sounding worried.

"To find another way. There has to be _something_ on this ship!" She yelled, and slammed the door behind her.

Left in the silence of the ship, Rose leaned her head against the door, a broken sob slipping past her mouth. Oh, gods, he was right. She _knew_ he was right, but didn't want to accept it. There had to be _something_, _anything_...

'_The day is drawing to a close, my Wolf, and important decisions must be made_,_'_ the TARDIS whispered in her mind.

"So not the time for riddles," Rose mumbled out loud.

'_What will you do?'_ The TARDIS insisted.

Rose rubbed a hand down her face, and moved away from the door. "I don't know," she admitted.

'_Will you leave him?'_

"Never," Rose said vehemently.

'_Do you love him?'_ Rose sensed this was more of a matter of the ship's curiosity than actual importance.

"How the hell should I know?" She snapped, throwing herself into the jump seat. Talking to the TARDIS wasn't exactly productive, but she didn't know what else to do. "Over a hundred years in this body," she murmured, more to herself than to the sentient ship, "and I still haven't quite got the hang of emotions."

'_If you stay with him, it is very probable you will die,'_ the TARDIS whispered after a moment, pulling Rose back to the matter at hand.

"And if I leave him?"

There was a pause; it made Rose uneasy. _'You will cease to exist…'_ the ship admitted reluctantly.

Rose sat up straighter, brow furrowed. "What…" she muttered, then started running through it. "Shit," she muttered, rubbing her head again, harder. Her existence, her _birth_, was dependent entirely on the Doctor's continued travels. If he died here, today, on this gods-forsaken satellite—she would never be born. "Good thing I wasn't planning on leaving," she muttered.

She had to save the Doctor. That had been her mission in the first place, but now her own survival depended on it as well. She stood from the jump seat, pacing, trying to ignore that her precious few minutes were being used up inside the time ship.

"What do I do?" She begged, staring at the time rotor.

'_I cannot answer that; you must find the answer on your own,'_ the TARDIS responded, voice soft.

"Damnit, Red!" Rose shouted, pounding her fists onto the console. She hated this. _Hated_ it.

Before she could ask the TARDIS anything else—or yell at her some more, as was more likely— the time rotor started pumping, and the engines groaned. "What the hell?" Rose shrieked, running around the console, trying to stop it from leaving the Game Station.

'_The Doctor activated my controls with his screwdriver,'_ the TARDIS explained. Even she sounded annoyed.

"When I get my hands on that damn—"

"This is Emergency Program One," the Doctor's voice says from behind her, making her turn so fast she hurt her neck.

It was a hologram. Not the Doctor, a hologram. She was going to kill him.

"Rose, before you start deciding how to kill me, listen; this is important," the hologram continued, staring blankly past her. Rose glared, and waited. "If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing: we're in danger."

"No shit, Sherlock," Rose muttered angrily.

"And I mean fatal," the hologram continued, oblivious to her sarcasm. "I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape."

"Yeah you are. 'Cause I'm gonna kill you!" Rose snapped. Tears were gathering in the corners of her eyes, but she ignored them. This was not a time for crying.

"And that's okay, hope it's a good death." Oh, he would say that. "But I swore to myself that I was going to keep you safe, and that's what I'm doing. The TARDIS is taking you home."

"Like hell!" Rose shouted, and decided she'd had enough. She rushed up to the controls, and started trying to initiate the dematerialization sequence.

"And now I bet you're cursing and threatening my life, typical." Rose snorted at that one. "But hold on and just listen a bit more." Rose paused for a fraction of a second, and kept working. "The TARDIS can never return for me. Emergency Program One means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine." He paused, and Rose hit the console. Why wasn't this working?

"But I know you. You'll try and come back for me anyway—if only so you can have the pleasure of killing me yourself. But you can't. I locked the controls; the TARDIS can never fly again." The tears started leaking from Rose's eyes now. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't risk it. You're almost as clever as me," here the hologram smiled sadly, "and if I didn't jam her like this completely, I knew you'd find a way back."

"Damn you," Rose cried, sitting on the jump seat. "Damn you…"

"And I know you don't owe me anything at this point, but do something for me, Rose. Just one thing." The Hologram turned to look at her directly. "Have a fantastic life."

And then he was gone.

Rose sat for only a moment longer before rushing back to the controls, trying to make the TARDIS work.

'_Wolf…'_ the TARDIS sighed.

Rose ignored her, and dove under the console, pulling at the wiring.

'_Wolf,'_ the TARDIS tried again.

Rose continued to ignore her, though took to letting loose a string of curses.

'_Wolf!'_ The TARDIS finally shouted, demanding Rose's attention.

"What!" Rose yelled, throwing the wires away from her face and pulling herself out from under the console. "What? You gonna tell me it's hopeless? That there's no fixing it? That I'm stranded here and should just make the best of whatever time I have left?" She was crying in earnest now. "Well no. I don't buy it. I will _fight_ with everything I have, with every second I have left, until I find a way back to him." She stamped her foot like a small child. "I won't let him die up there. Not like this. Not now. Because if he dies up there now, then I'll disappear; I'll have never been. And I wouldn't give up one _second_ of the time I spent with that man, not like this. So, unless you're going to tell me how to fix you, I suggest you _shut up_!"

The TARDIS remained silent, and Rose went back to work. Her time was limited, she knew, but she'd found an energy and speed she hadn't even known she'd possessed. She yanked wires and ripped fuses like a woman possessed, and still nothing changed.

Growling in frustration, she through a wrench at a wall, ignoring the _CLANK!_ It made as it hit the metal. She hated this. Hated this not knowing. Hated this inability to do anything useful. She hated being in the dark about so much, unable to _see_ like she used to—

Oh.

_Oh_.

Could she do that? Was it even possible?

Would she survive?

Probably not. But she was okay with that. She could save the Doctor, save the Earth. If it worked, that is.

'_Red?'_ She called hesitantly, moving quietly around the TARDIS, running her hand along the console.

'_Yes, my Wolf?'_ The TARDIS responded, no hint of anger at Rose's earlier explosion evident in her voice.

'_If I could—If I were too—'_ She paused, unsure how to phrase it.

'_You want to look into my heart, and use the power of the Time Vortex to take you back to my Thief?'_ The TARDIS asked helpfully.

Why couldn't she be this damn useful earlier? _'Yes,'_ Rose responded, pausing in her walk in front of the panel that held the TARDIS' heart.

'_It will most likely kill you,'_ the TARDIS pointed out. _'You cannot hold that much power, that much knowledge, for very long. Not as you are now.'_

"I know," Rose whispered aloud, her eyes on the panel. "But if I can save the Doctor…" she lifted her eyes to the Time Rotor. "I told you; I wouldn't give up one second of the time that I spent with him."

There was silence for a moment, and then the panel concealing the TARDIS' heart started to open, a golden light filling the room.

* * *

The Doctor worked frantically, trying to finish the delta wave. The Dalek Emperor watched his progress on the communications screen, goading him every so often, but the Doctor tried to ignore him. He _had_ to do this.

He was alone now; he'd sent Rose away (he could practically _hear_ her screaming at him from the TARDIS), Lynda was dead, Jack was dead or about to be. The programmers were all dead, too.

And soon he, the Daleks, and all of Earth would be dead.

If he could just get this damned thing finished!

He pulled a lever, and was surprised to hear power thrum through the device. "It's finished!" He exclaimed; he hadn't been entirely sure he could do it, honestly.

Daleks started to file into the room; apparently he wasn't going to get even a moment's rest. "You really want to think about this," he said to the Daleks, his eyes wandering the room. "'Cause if I activate this device, every living creature dies."

"I AM IMMORTAL," the Emperor declared from onscreen.

The insanity of this thing was going to be the death of them all. "D'you really wanna put that to the test?" He asked, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. He didn't want to do this. He didn't want to be a murderer, _again_.

"I WANT TO SEE YOU BECOME LIKE ME," the Emperor said, almost smugly. "HAIL, THE DOCTOR! THE GREAT EXTERMINATER!"

His blood ran cold, but he put his hands on the lever, contorting his face into an angry glare. "I'll do it!" He threatened.

"THEN PROVE YOURSELF, DOCTOR. COWARD? OR KILLER?"

The Doctor tensed, preparing to push down the lever.

'_I will _not_ let you destroy my planet!'_

Rose's anger filled voice flashed through his mind, accompanied by a visual of her glaring at him. He paused, trying to fight away the guilt. He had to do this. He _had_ to…

Rose would be so ashamed. She'd trusted him, thought more of him…and here he was, about to kill the planet she loved. About to commit genocide, again.

For all he knew, she was down there on that semi-dead planet. Her life span was elongated, and who knew where she would end up?

Her eyes flashed in his mind's eye one more time before he dropped his hands from the lever, and looked up to the Emperor. "Coward. Any day."

"MANKIND WILL BE HARVESTED BECAUSE OF YOUR WEAKNESS," the emperor informed him triumphantly.

"And what about me? Am I becoming one of your angels?" Oh, Rassilon, _please_ no…

"YOU ARE THE HEATHEN. YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED."

Thank goodness. "Maybe it's time," he murmured. He closed his eyes and spread his arms, waiting. He could hear the Daleks drawing closer, taking aim, the TARDIS engines…

Wait.

His eyes flew open as he turned around. And sure enough, there was the TARDIS, materializing in the same spot he'd sent her away from.

How?! How was this possible? He'd locked the controls to avoid exactly this, and somehow she'd found a way around it!

The daleks were screaming, but the Doctor didn't pay them any mind, his eyes glued instead to the TARDIS.

The doors flew open, and a blinding golden light spilled out. The Doctor threw up a hand to protect his eyes, and tried to take a step back, but fell. Rose stepped out of the TARDIS then, a slight shadow in the golden light, but still illuminated by the golden energy swirling in her eyes. "What have you done?" The Doctor asked, terrified.

Rose turned her head slowly to look at him. He almost felt the need to shrink away under the gaze of that much power. "I looked into the TARDIS," she told him, her voice oddly double-toned. "And the TARDIS looked into me."

"You looked into the time vortex," he realized, and sat up from where he'd been laying, trying to reach her. "Rose, no one's meant to see that!"

The Daleks were still screaming, and one of them fired at Rose. The Doctor jerked forward, trying in vain to stop the beam from hitting her. But Rose simply held up a hand, turning the ray back towards the gun it had come from as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"I am the Bad Wolf," she informed them all ominously. "At my weakest, I defied logic and nature. At my strongest, I dare anyone to defy me." Her eyes are locked on the Daleks, and no emotion reaches her face. There are a few tears running down her cheeks, but the Doctor isn't sure if they're old tears, or if she's still crying.

"Rose, you've got to stop this," the Doctor begged urgently. "You've got to stop this now!" She didn't respond in the slightest, still staring at the Daleks. "You've got the entire vortex running through your head." He had to make her understand! "You're gonna burn!"

Finally, final, she turned to look at him, and for one moment, the Doctor thought he'd reached whatever part of her that was left. "I want you safe," she said softly, and he could hear a bit of her normal voice now. "My Doctor. Protected from the false god."

She wasn't going to stop! She was on some misguided mission to keep him alive, and she _wasn't going to stop_. She was going to burn and die and he couldn't stop her, and oh, _Rassilon, no…_

"YOU CANNOT HURT ME," the Emperor yelled definatly. "I AM IMMORTAL."

Rose's head snapped to look at the Emperor. "You are tiny," she informed him, anger entering her tone and all traces of Rose disappearing. "I can see the whole of time and space—every single atom of your existence, and I divide them." She raised her hand, and the Doctor watched in terrified awe as the Daleks began to turn into golden dust, even the Emperor, who was still on his ship.

She was killing _all_ of them!

"Everything must come to dust…" she whispered, "all things…everything dies."

"The Time War ends," Rose declared as the last of the Daleks is reduced to dust. She kept her hand in the air, staring ahead. She'd started shaking.

The Doctor still sat on the floor, staring at her, useless. "Rose, you've done it," he called, recognizing the signs that her body was starting to fail. Honestly, she shouldn't have lasted a minute, let alone this long. "Now stop. Just let it go," he begged.

"How can I let go of this?" She asked quietly, not looking at him. "I bring life."

From somewhere in the ship, the Doctor felt a timeline shudder, then grow. Then the whole of time rippled and nearly _gagged_ at what was created. Jack…was that monstrosity Jack? What had she done to him… "But this is wrong!" The Doctor yelled frantically, still reeling from the feeling Jack gave him. "You can't control life and death!"

She looked at him again, and her gaze was cold and terrible. "But I can," she said softly. "The sun and the moon…the day and the night…" her voice started to tremble. "But why do they hurt?"

"The power's gonna kill you and it's my fault!" The Doctor told her, desperately trying to make her understand.

"I can see everything…" she whispered, heedless. A tear fell from her face. "All that is…all that was…all that ever could be…it is as before…"

The Doctor stilled for a moment, and pulled himself to his feet. He knew what he had to do, he knew how to save her. "That's what I see, all the time," he told her, drawing closer. "And doesn't it drive you mad?" If she wouldn't let go…

"My head…" she cried, nearing the end.

"Come here." Then he'd just have to take it from her.

"It's killing me…"

He took her hands, and felt the raw power the circulated through her entire being. "I think you need a Doctor." And maybe it was a bit cheesy, but it was all he had, all he could give. He leaned down to press his lips to hers, savoring the feeling for just a moment before he began to pull the vortex out of her, and into himself. It took only seconds to turn Rose from a vengeful goddess back into her normal self; somehow it felt like it should have taken much longer than that.

He pulled away from her carefully, keeping the power of the vortex shut down and out of the way. Rose looked at him for only a moment, her eyes wondrously brown, then fell to the side, unconscious. He caught her and carefully set her down before turning to the open TARDIS. Letting the vortex rise to the surface, he forced it out and directed it back to its rightful home.

He smiled for a moment, but it quickly faded when he felt a spasm rock his body. He looked at his hand, and saw the ripple of regeneration energy; not much time then. He carefully scooped Rose up into his arms, and headed into the TARDIS. Jack was on his way up, and well. The Doctor just felt physically ill in his presence, so it was time to go.

It took minutes to send the TARDIS into the vortex, and he leaned over the controls as he waited. He wondered which would come first: the regeneration, or Rose's awakening.

A slight groaning answered his question, and he pasted a smile on his face, turning to Rose.

"What happened?" She asked groggily. Good, she didn't remember anything. "Wait…" she froze, and looked at him with wide eyes. "It worked?" She whispered. So much for that. He let the smile fall from his face.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he growled.

Rose ignored him, and shakily got to her feet. "I'm alive?" she asked, confused. "How am I alive?"

The Doctor's eyes widened fractionally, and he looked away.

"You…" Rose murmured, and he could hear her walking closer. "You took it out of me?" Silence. "You…you…_idiot!_" She shrieked, and punctuated the thought by slapping him on the side of the head.

"Oi!" He protested, rubbing his head. At this rate she was going to knock him through two regenerations in one day!

"I came back so you wouldn't die! Not so you could play hero and save the damsel in distress!" Oh crap, she was tearing up again.

"Well I couldn't very well stand there and watch you die, could I?" He asked quietly, reaching out to rub her shoulder.

Rose leaned into his touch, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "You'll regenerate, yeah?" She asked, not opening her eyes.

Well. At least he didn't have to try and explain that before it happened. Another shock rocked his body, and a small grunt escaped. Rose's eyes flew open. "Yeah," he muttered, strained, pulling his hand away and backing up. "Now-ish, actually…"

Rose's eyes widened, and she rushed forward. He tried to shove her away, but she wasn't having any of it. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "Thank you," She breathed, her breath tickling his ear. He hugged her back, knowing he had only seconds. "For saving me," she added.

"When?" He asked, wondering which occasion she meant.

She pulled away, and smiled, backing up to a safe distance. "Always."

He managed to grin at her before he couldn't contain it anymore, and the regeneration energy exploded out of him, rewriting every cell in his body. He kept his mind focused on Rose through the process, trying to ignore the pain. How she looked, how she smelled, how she laughed…

The pain started to fade, and so did the light. He felt his muscles unlock as his arms fell to the side in his too-big jacket.

"Right, he started, then paused, running his tongue over his teeth. "New teeth," he muttered to himself. Oh, he liked his voice, too! "That's weird…" he caught sight of Rose, and zeroed in on her. "Where were we?"

* * *

**And so ends season 1. What do you think? I've been working on this chapter in my head since...well, since before chapter one! Let me know what you think?**

**I also didn't get the chance to proofread this because, well, honestly, it's late and I have to get up early tomorrow, and I wanted to post it tonight . So, sorry if there are some really rough sections! Point any out to me and I'll Doctor them up, promise!**

**Thanks to everyone who favorites, followed, and reviewed!**

**Until next time!**


	12. Chapter 12

_Waking up was a strange feeling, and definitely not one she'd ever experienced before; before now, she'd never slept._

_It took her several minutes to understand what the nerve endings in the body, _her_ body, were telling her—she was lying on a floor, and it was cold. Recognizing that, she went about understanding the muscles and how they worked. It took her three point seven minutes to memorize how to move everything, and another minute after that to decide to open her eyes._

_Light. Lots of bright light, and some faces. She felt she should know these faces, but everything was a bit…fuzzy, at the moment. Her sister was shouting at her, but she pointedly ignored it._

_She slowly contorted herself into a sitting position, marveling at the feeling of muscles stretching and contracting. There was so much _new_ with this body…touch, sight, smell…she wondered what taste would be like. She ignored her ears for the moment—she'd heard things before, and wasn't overly interested in listening to the odd assortment of human and Time Lord around her._

_Her eyes scanned the room slowly; taking in the faces, the walls, the buttons…they froze on one figure in the corner. He'd been forced to his knees, with his hands behind his back. Tied, she realized. He kept his eyes on the ground, but, apparently feeling her gaze, looked up at her after a moment._

_Him she remembered with painful clarity. He had a name, a real name, she knew, but he'd always referred to himself as "Daddy" in her presence, and it was this title that stuck in her mind as she looked at him._

_Slowly, slowly, she pulled herself to her feet, pausing for a moment to feel this new way her muscles were moving, before haltingly making her way over to Daddy. She clumsily knelt before him, eyes searching his face._

"_Hello, Daddy," she whispered, hearing her voice for the first time. She couldn't quite decide if she liked it or not, and put it aside to consider later._

_The man's face twisted into a look she didn't yet recognize, (smugness, she would later learn) as he considered her. She reached out her hand towards his cheek, and let it rest there. Someone from behind her grabbed her arm, but she shook them off, her attention focused on Daddy. "Goodbye, Daddy," she whispered, and let the power she'd been careful to store in this body fill her._

_The man's eyes widened for a moment (surprise, that was what this meant in the language of faces), before golden light poured from her fingertips, and turned him to dust._

_She lowered her hand, watching the dust disperse into the air, and felt only satisfaction, an emotion she was only slightly familiar with._

_There were gasps behind her, and she turned to consider the others in the room. Her eyes landed on another man, who had been deemed unimportant earlier in the presence of Daddy, but who now consumed all of her attention._

_She could not remember this man's name, but she could remember that he was the man who Daddy had hunted with a single minded intensity. Daddy's obsession with this man was what had led to her creation, and subsequent torture. Because of this man, she had been twisted and perverted and turned into a weapon, an abomination. Because of this man she had been shoved into this body, turned into a joke, a freak of nature._

_She hated him._

_She tried to stand, intending for this man to meet the same fate as Daddy, but her body failed her, and she crashed back down to the ground. Confusion, something she wasn't familiar with at all, filled her as an unnamed feeling swept through her body, and made it difficult to move._

_She was tired, she realized with some surprise. And not just tired, but _exhausted_. Apparently using her powers in this body took a much larger toll than they would have before._

_She could feel her eyes slipping closed as sleep threatened to overwhelm her. Her body—for she was still sitting somewhat upright—started to slip to the side, but something warm and soft caught her._

"_Rose?" A quiet voice asked hesitantly._

_She forced her eyes open just enough to see the hated man cradling her in his arms, staring down at her with his eyebrows lowered and the corners of his mouth pointed down (concern was what she would call it once she learned the name)._

_She looked at him for a moment, fighting sleep and trying to find her vocal chords again. "I will destroy you…" she murmured, then gave in as the world went black._

* * *

Rose's eyes flew open as the dream ended, confusion filling her as she tried to make sense of her surroundings.

Bed, she was in a bed. Silence…she wasn't in the TARDIS…

It took her another moment before she realized she was in _her_ bed in _her_ flat back on Earth. Turning slightly to the side, she saw the Doctor still sleeping soundly on the other side of her bed. Jack would be asleep on the couch…

She let out a sigh, and went to work relaxing her body again. It wasn't very often that she dreamed, and it was even rarer that her memories appeared in her dreams. She wasn't overly fond of it when it happened.

That day…that had been when she first woke up in this body, when she first learned how to use it. It had been the first time she'd met the Doctor, and the first time she'd spoken to him. She was still ashamed that her first words to him were a threat.

But she'd been filled with so much anger, so much hatred at the time…she shivered slightly, and tried to shove the memories from her mind.

She turned on her side to consider this new-faced Doctor. For one terrifying moment while he'd been regenerating, she'd expected to see the face of _her_ Doctor; to receive that sign that her time traveling with the Doctor was again about to come to a close. But the face she was looking at now was unfamiliar. She had more time with him yet, and for that she was infinitely grateful.

'_Do you love him?'_ The TARDIS had asked. She'd responded truthfully when she'd said she didn't know; as unfamiliar as she had been with emotions in the memory she'd just relived, she was only slightly better now. Anger, joy, sadness, hatred…those she understood. But love, peace, lust…those she still didn't quite have a grasp on.

Jack, of course, had made lewd comments when Rose had deposited the unconscious Time Lord into her bed, which had set her to thinking. What would it be like to have a physical relationship with the Doctor? He was attractive, this incarnation…not that he had been unattractive in the previous, but there was something about this one…

Rose snorted, and rolled back onto her back. Useless, that's what thoughts like these were. She stretched and slithered out of bed, being careful not to wake the Doctor. She'd given him tea to help him with the regeneration sickness, but he still needed to sleep some of it off.

She passed a sword on her way into the kitchen, but ignored it.

The Doctor had passed out shortly after regenerating, he hadn't even gotten the chance to properly look at his new body. Rose had piloted them back to Earth, pausing in Cardiff to collect Jack so he could help her move the Doctor. He was thinner this time around, but still heavy.

Jack, life saver that he was, had been keeping up the payments on her flat, so she'd parked the TARDIS in her living room to wait while the Doctor recovered. Things hadn't been as easy as they should have been, of course, since Rose had somehow managed to land them on the day that the Sycorax decided to try and invade Earth. She'd dealt with that little issue on her own, leaving Jack on babysitting duty.

"Why do you have a sword?" Jack had asked when she'd returned an hour after leaving for the Sycorax ship.

Rose had looked at the sword, surprised; she'd thought she'd left it on the ship. "Had a bit of a disagreement with the Sycorax leader. He decided a duel to the death was the best way to solve it," she'd shrugged, sticking the sword in a corner.

"You killed him?" Jack had demanded, disapproving. They'd all become pacifists since joining with the Doctor.

"No!" Rose had protested, almost indignant. "Well, I mean, _yes_, but only because he tried to run me through after I'd already won!"

Rose shook her head as she walked into the kitchen, making a mental note to put the sword in storage. She hummed to herself quietly as she went about making tea, pulling a second cup from the cupboard when she realized she could hear the television running in the living room.

She padded out into the living room, silently handing Jack his cup before curling up on the couch next to him.

"Thanks," Jack murmured, his eyes glued to a news program. The reporter was talking about Harriet Jones, who had apparently received a vote of no confidence and was being removed from office. "Why do I feel like this is your doing?" Jack asked after a moment, turning to look at Rose with one eyebrow raised.

Rose kept her eyes on the telley and took a sip from her cup.

Jack sighed. "Of course," he murmured, chuckling to himself. He leaned back against the couch, resting his arm around Rose's shoulders. "How's our resident Sleeping Beauty?"

Rose smiled slightly. "He snores."

"I do not!"

The duo on the couch turned around to find the Doctor standing in the doorway, clad only in a pair of pajamas borrowed from Jack; they were a bit small on him.

Rose grinned at him, glad he seemed to have finally recovered. "Yeah you do. And you kick, too."

The Doctor turned a bit pink at that last bit, but hid it by coming over and collapsing next to Rose, stealing her cup of tea despite her protests.

"So, did I miss anything interesting?" He asked, sipping from Rose's cup before making a face and handing the cup back. "That's dreadful."

Rose glared. "Go make your own then!"

"But Rose!" He whined. "I don't know what I like in this body yet!"

Jack choked on his tea, making the other two look at him curiously. "What? Oh, c'mon! Neither of you heard how that…? Just me?" He sighed, shaking his head.

Rose looked at the Doctor for an explanation, but he just shrugged. His ears were a bit pink, though, so she was pretty sure he just didn't want to explain.

"So. Anything interesting?" He prompted.

Rose and Jack glanced at each other this time. "Nah," they said simultaneously, Jack changing the channel on the television. No need to let the Doctor know Rose had killed an alien leader and Harriet Jones had blown up a surrendering ship.

They sat in silence for a moment, the Doctor fidgeting. "Rose, can I have a word?" He asked finally, jumping to his feet. Rose blinked, but nodded, and followed him back to her room.

"Why is Jack here?" The Doctor demanded in a hushed voice the minute the door was closed.

"Um, because you're heavy and I couldn't get you out of the TARDIS alone? And the Jack we were travelling with seems to have pulled a disappearing act, so…" she shrugged. "Why?"

The Doctor tugged on his ear in agitation, his eyes darting over Rose's shoulder to the door, as if he could see through it and to the man in question. "Because he's…" he floundered for a moment, "…wrong," he decided finally, and promptly winced at the look Rose was giving him. "You know what I mean!"

"I suppose you're referring to his inability to die?" She asked coolly. _Her_ Doctor had never seemed to have a problem with it…

"Yes, that!" The Doctor exclaimed, momentarily forgetting to keep his voice quiet. "He's all…wrong. A fact. A walking talking fixed point in time and space." He was quiet for a moment, staring at the ground, before his eyes darted to Rose's. "He makes my skin crawl," he admitted. "Why doesn't he affect you?"

Rose sighed, and sat on the bed. "I'm used to it," she shrugged. "Never could get him to tell me how it happened, but he's been like this for as long as I've known him. Well," she acknowledged, "except for the him we recently traveled with. Must've happened after he left us."

"Er, yeah…" the Doctor muttered, and came over to sit next to her. They were quiet for a moment. "So Jack is still with us in the future? I…get used to him?" He asked, making a face.

"He travels with us off and on…he has his hands pretty full with Torchwood, but visits every so often. And if his factualness has ever bothered you, you never show it."

Silence fell again. The Doctor was having a hard time accepting all of this, Rose could see it. "I had a weird dream," the Doctor said after a moment. "Actually…" he faltered, and looked at her hesitantly. "I think you had a weird dream."

Rose stiffened.

"I was you, but I was…different. Colder. Mechanical, almost. And so…angry…"

"Stop," Rose ordered. "My mental shields must have dropped while I was asleep, you were never meant to see any of that." Her voice was hard, and she refused to meet his eyes.

"Rose…" the Doctor whispered, reaching for her arm. She jerked away, and he dropped his hand. There was a tense, awkward silence for a moment. "Who changed my clothes?" The Doctor asked at last, trying to make his voice light.

Rose relaxed with the subject change. "I did," she shrugged, and stood up from the bed. The Doctor's ears were red again. She grinned at him. "Would you rather Jack had done it? Because, believe me, he was _very_ willing," she teased, her tongue poking out as she grinned.

The Doctor shuddered, but there was a smile on his face. "Well, when you put it like that…" he muttered, and stood.

Rose laughed. "C'mon, let's get back out there before Jack breaks something."

She hooked arms with him as they went back to the living room, bumping her shoulder with his as they walked.

"Oh, I meant to ask you, why do you have a sword in the corner?"

* * *

**Shorter that most of the chapters have been recently, but I hope y'all like it anyway!**

**In other news (not sure what the first set of news was) we've hit 100 reviews! Thank you all so much! Thanks also to everyone who followed and favorited!**

**Until next time!**


	13. Chapter 13

It took him a while, but eventually the Doctor managed to convince Rose that he was over his regeneration sickness, and ready to start traveling again. They dropped Jack off in Cardiff first (for which the Doctor was infinitely grateful), then went back to the same old life of traveling and running.

The Doctor spent a lot more time than he'd like to admit mulling over Rose's dream. It had felt more like a memory than just the fabrications of her subconscious, but since Rose refused to talk about it, he couldn't be entirely sure. He'd tried to puzzle out where the dream had taken place, and who the people in it were, but nothing had been familiar. The whole thing was becoming another unsolved mystery, and he hated unsolved mysteries.

He'd tried to ask Rose about it several times since, but she shut down each time he brought it up, giving him a terrifying look at what a Rose without emotions looked like. She did that a lot, shut him out when he asked her questions. She'd gotten him to tell her what had happened after she looked into the TARDIS (apparently she remembered that bit, just nothing after), and he had, excluding a few parts (such as how she brought Jack back to life—permanently).

But when he asked her how it was possible for her to have lasted as long as she had, he could almost literally see her walls come crashing into place as all traces of emotion left her face, and she wandered from the room. Even when he asked her if she knew what she meant by calling herself "Bad Wolf," he got the same response. It was about to drive him mad.

So he watched her, which was easy, since this body seemed to want to do nothing more than watch Rose—well, that and lick things; but the two desires were unrelated (or so he kept telling himself)—trying to glean some sort of answer by studying her behavior.

All he managed to do was annoy her.

* * *

"It's the year five billion and twenty-three," the Doctor announced, stepping out of the TARDIS with Rose behind him. "We're in Galaxy M87, and this, this is New Earth!" He stretched out his arms as if to show off the grandeur of the planet.

"Oh, I like this one," Rose murmured, her eyes roaming across the scenery. "Is that apple grass I smell?"

The Doctor nodded, grinning, and grabbed her hand leading her away from the TARDIS. He spread his coat on the ground, and motioned for her to sit, plopping down next to her.

"Trying to get on my good side again?" Rose asked, smirking as she leaned back on her elbows, crossing her ankles. The Doctor smiled sheepishly, but didn't respond. "Thought so. So, New Earth? This during the revival then, after Old Earth got a little too close to the sun?"

"Technically, I think it's the sun got a little too close to Earth. But yeah."

"Semantics," she waved him off, then turned to survey the city. "Which city is that?"

"New New York."

"You know, you're always on about the vast imaginative powers the humans have, and then you turn around and find places like this; New Earth. New New York. Not nearly as imaginative as you've led me to believe," Rose pointed out, smirking at him.

The Doctor went for the most mature response he could think of: he stuck his tongue out at her.

Rose laughed, shaking her head, and just looked at him for a moment. He was starting to understand why she'd seemed so uncomfortable every time he just started staring at her. "What?" He asked, finally.

"You're just so different," she said, turning away from him at last.

"New new Doctor," he grinned.

Rose smiled for a moment, before leaping to her feet. "So! Off to explore New New York, then?" She asked, holding out her hand to help him up.

He took it, grabbing his coat and shrugging back into it as he rose. "Actually, thought we'd go there first," he said innocently, pointing at two curving skyscrapers.

Rose raised an eyebrow. "We're going to the hospital?" She deadpanned.

"Well," he dragged out the word, tugging on his ear lobe, before producing the psychic paper and showing it to Rose. "Someone wants to see me, apparently." The psychic paper had the words _Ward 26—please come_ written on it.

Rose sighed. "So much for getting on my good side. Alright, let's go."

* * *

For Rassilon's sake, how long did it take to get to a hospital ward? The Doctor glanced at the door for the umpteenth time to see if Rose would come wandering in. She didn't.

He'd gotten separated from her at the lifts, and had expected her to take the next one straight up. But no, of course not, that would be too easy. Judging by the amount of time she was taking, Rose had decided to take the _long_ way to Ward twenty-six. The around the whole bloody planet long way.

It took him twenty minutes to give in and find a phone.

"Er, Wotcha," came over the phone.

Well, that was new.

"Where've you been?" He asked, ignoring the odd slang for now. "How long does it take to get to Ward twenty-six?"

"I'm on my way, gov'na!" Even her tone of voice was off… "I shall proceed up the apples and pears."

"The Face of Boe's here!" The Doctor exclaimed excitedly, glancing back at the jar in the corner. Rose was just being silly, that was all, nothing to worry about. "Have you ever met him?"

She laughed. "Of course I have!"

She kept talking, but he'd stopped listening. The Duke of Manhattan, whom he'd met on the way in, was laughing excitedly. Which was odd, given that he was dying. "I've got to go, see you in a minute," he said hurriedly into the phone, before dropping it and making his way to the Duke.

"Didn't think I was going to make it," the Duke was saying excitedly as the Doctor made his way over. "Ah, it's that man again!" He exclaimed, beckoning the Doctor closer. "He's my good luck charm. Come in, come in, don't be shy!"

"Any friendship expressed by the Duke of Manhattan does not constitute a form of legal contract," the Duke's aid informed him primly.

"Winch me up. Up!" The Duke ordered, ignoring his aid much like the Doctor was. The bed that the Duke's considerable girth was laying on was pulled up right so that he and the Doctor might see each other better. "Look at me. No sign of infection!"

The Doctor waved off a waiter who was offering him Champaign, his eyes on the Duke. "You had Petrifold Regression, right?" He asked curiously.

"That being the operative word," the Duke said slyly, winking. "Past tense. Completely cured!"

"But that's impossible," the Doctor pointed out. They wouldn't have the medication needed to cure Petrifold Regression for another thousand years, at least! But the man before him truly showed no signs of the disease…

"Primitive species would accuse us of magic, but it's merely the tender application of science," one of the Cat Nurses said smugly, walking up next to him to look at the Duke.

"How on Earth did you cure him?" The Doctor asked, perplexed.

"How on New Earth, you might say," the Cat corrected him.

"What's in that solution," he persisted, not amused with the nurse's antics.

"A simple remedy," she shrugged.

"Then tell me what it is," he countered. Something was very not right here…

"I'm sorry, patient confidentiality." She didn't sound sorry at all, the secretive lying feline. "I don't believe we've met; my name is Matron Casp."

The Matron, figures. The heads of these sorts of things _always_ had secrets. The Doctor did not like secrets. "I'm the Doctor."

"I think you'll find we're the doctors here."

"Matron Casp, you're needed in Intensive Care," another nurse called over. The Matron excused herself, and left him with the jubilant, and somehow healthy (other than the obesity), Duke.

The Doctor tried for a bit to get the other nurses to speak to him, but all were as quiet on the matter as the Matron. Eventually, he took to going to each cubical on his own and looking over the patients.

"Ah, there you are!" He called to Rose, spotting her immediately when she walked in. "Come and look at this patient. Marconi's Disease. Should take years to recover. Two days. I've never seen anything like it. They've invented a cell washing cascade. It's amazing. Their medical science is way advanced. And this one," he rambled, pulling her along. "Pallidome Pancrosis. Kills you in ten minutes, and he's fine." He paused, both to breathe and wave at the patient he was (visibly) talking about. "I need to find a terminal," he whispered, pulling her by the arm and out of the room. "I've got to see how they do this. Because if they've got the best medicine in the world, then why is it such a secret?"

"I can't Adam and Eve it," Rose drawled, sounding bored, as she glanced around the room.

And there it was again! The weird tone, the slang she'd hardly ever used before…what was she doing? "What-what's with the voice?" He asked, frowning.

She turned to face him, and smiled in a far more alluring manner than he'd ever seen her use. "Oh, I don't know," she said innocently. "Just larking about. New Earth, new me…" she placed her hand on her hip, jutting out her chest a bit.

Did Rose normally show that much cleavage? Oh, Rassilon, he was looking! "Well, I can talk," he started, quickly pulling his eyes to her face and forcibly keeping a blush down. "New new Doctor," he grinned, chuckling a bit.

"Mmm," Rose murmured, "aren't you just?" And the next thing he knew, she was trying to eat his tongue and he didn't mind _nearly_ as much as he should because her breasts were pressed to his chest and her hands were in his hair and he could_ taste_ her and—

And then it was over. He'd just been thoroughly snogged by one Rose Tyler, and he wasn't entirely sure how to react.

"T-t-terminal's this way," she murmured, a bit breathless, before leading the way.

He watched her walk away, trying to remember how to close his jaw. "Yep," he squeaked, following after her. "Still got it." When had his voice gotten that high pitched?

* * *

Rose figured out that the Intensive Care ward was being hidden in the system, and then figured out how to work the computer (it was times like this he was grateful to have a companion that was _nearly_ as clever as he was). The terminal slid down into the ground, revealing a dimly lit hallway.

They followed the hall and down a flight of old metal stairs until they arrived in a large room filled with green-lit pods. The Doctor frowned as walked down the aisle he was on, pausing to open one of the pods. Inside was a man—a very, _very_ sick man. He was covered in boils and rashes and looked just plain _ill_.

"That's disgusting," Rose muttered, slightly behind him. "What's wrong with him?"

Warning bells flashed in the Doctor's head. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he told the man sadly, and closed the door to the pod again. He moved to the next pod, and revealed a woman in much the same condition as the man.

"What disease is that?" Rose asked, disgust plain in her voice.

"All of them," he told her, voice hard. "They've been infected with every disease in the galaxy."

"What about us? Are we safe?" She sounded a bit panicked, and the Doctor felt the rage inside him intensify just the slightest bit.

"The air's sterile, just don't touch them." He shut the door to the pod, hiding the woman from sight again. He walked away from the line of pods and to the railing in the center of the room. He looked over the edge, and to the rest of the room. Floor on floor on floor, and each contained thousands of pods. And each pod contained one of these poor creatures.

"How many patients are there?" Rose asked, coming to stand next to him.

"They're not patients," he all but growled.

"But they're sick," she argued, frowning.

"They were born sick. They're meant to be sick. They exist to be sick. Lab rats. No wonder the Sisters have got a cure for everything. They've built the ultimate research laboratory. A human farm." Disgust filled him with each word, and his brain raced with a way to fix all this, to make it right. He pushed off of the railing and went back to pacing down the aisle, looking at all of the pods.

"Why don't they just die?" Rose asked.

"Plague carriers. The last to go." The ones who suffered the longest.

"It's for the greater cause," a soft voice called.

They turned to look down the row, and a nurse stepped into the light.

"Novice Hame," the Doctor recognized, glaring. She was the nurse that had been attending to the Face of Boe. "When you took your vows, did you agree to this?" His voice was low, and angry. It had moved lesser people to fear, but Novice Hame didn't seem affected at all.

"The Sisterhood has sworn to _help_," she explained, as if to a small child.

"What, by killing?" He snapped, his voice finally raising from the forced quiet he'd maintained so far in an effort to appear calm.

"But they're not real people. They're specially grown. They have no proper existence." How could she be so indifferent to this, so unaffected? She was a nurse, for Rassilon's sake, she was supposed to be a _healer_, not a _killer!_

"What's the turnover, hmm?" He asked, switching tactics. It was suddenly very important to him that Hame saw herself for the monster she was. "Thousand a day? Thousand the next? Thousand the next? How many thousands? For how many years? How many!" He yelled the last bit as he paced closer.

"Mankind needed us," she explained gently, obviously trying to make him understand why all of this was a good thing. She'd have a better chance of getting him to eat a pear. "They came to this planet with so many illnesses. We couldn't cope. We did try. We tried everything. We tried using clone-meat and bio-cattle, but the results were too slow, so the Sisterhood grew its own flesh. That's all they are. Flesh." She was even smiling by the end!

"These people are alive!" He growled.

"But think of those humans out there, healthy and happy, because of us."

"If they live because of this, then life is worthless," he said darkly, his voice finally returning to a low volume.

"But who are you, to decide that?" This was her trump card, he could tell.

"I'm the Doctor." He stalked closer to her, a manic gleam in his eye. "And if you don't like it, if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with me." She flinched as he finished, and he took a sort of perverse pride in it.

"Just to confirm," Rose said quietly, leaning around the Doctor to look at Novice Hame. "None of the humans in the city know about this?"

"We thought it best not," Hame responded.

"Hold on," The Doctor interrupted, turning his glare back on Hame. "I can understand the bodies, I can understand your vows. One thing I can't understand. What have you done to Rose?"

"I don't know what you mean," Hame responded, sounding unsure for the first time.

"And I'm being very, very calm," he informed her, teeth clenched as he tried to reign himself in; he needed to find out what happened to Rose _before_ he exploded. "You want to be aware of that. Very, very calm. And the only reason I'm being so very, very calm is that the brain is a delicate thing. Whatever you've done to Rose's head, I want it reversed."

"We haven't done anything," Hame insisted.

"I'm perfectly fine!" Not-Rose chimed in.

"Those people are dying; Rose would care."

"Oh, alright, clever clogs," Not-Rose sighed, dropping all pretense. The Doctor whirled around to face her, only slightly surprised. He'd honestly thought it had been something the Cat-Kind did that had affected Rose, but the way she was talking… "Smarty pants," she purred, grabbing hold of his tie and pulling it free of his suit. "Lady killer," she finished huskily.

"What's happened to you?" He asked, covering his fear with anger. Now that he knew it wasn't Rose talking to him like this…well, he wasn't nearly as affected as he had been earlier; something he was choosing not to dwell on, thank you very much.

"I knew there was something going on in this hospital, but I needed this body and your mind to figure it out. Though, honestly, I suppose I could have taken _your_ body and used _her_ mind, but what can I say? I've got a thing about curves," she explained, and continued to play with his tie.

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked, rather confused at this point.

Keeping a firm grip on the tie, she pulled him down, and leaned into his ear. "The last human," she breathed, breath tickling his ear.

"Cassandra?" He asked. The bit of skin from platform one? Hadn't she died? He was pretty sure he'd watched her explode.

And, oh Rassilon, he'd _kissed_ her. Well, she'd kissed him and it had been Rose's body, but still! The driving force behind the kiss had been Cassandra and he had the sudden urge to rinse out his mouth with acid.

"Wake up and smell the perfume!" Cassandra snapped nastily, pulling a vial from her (Rose's) cleavage.

And Rose's cleavage was about the last thing he remembered before he passed out.

* * *

When he came to, everything was lit in green, and for some reason, that gave him a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. After looking around, he remembered: Cassandra, Cat-Kind, pods, diseases, Rose…everything was very not good. "Let me out," he called angrily. "Let me out!"

"Aren't you lucky there was a spare?" Cassandra purred, walking up to his pod to peer in at him. "Standing room only," She grinned.

"You've stolen Rose's body," he accused.

"Over the years, I've thought of a thousand ways to kill you, Doctor," Cassandra said, ignoring him entirely. "And now, that's exactly what I've got. One thousand diseases. They pump the patients with a top-up every ten minutes. You've got about three minutes left. Enjoy."

"Just let Rose go!" He ordered.

"I think not. I'd like someone younger, and less common, but this body doesn't age and, well, you can't really compete with that, now can you? Now hushaby. It's show time." She walked away from him after that, leaving him very angry and very stuck.

His arms were stuck in some sort of restraint, and his legs weren't much use, either. He couldn't hear much of what was happening outside of his pod, but he thought he recognized the Matron's voice.

The Doctor pulled at his restraints, letting loose a stream of curses the likes of which his last body had been very familiar with, but this one had yet to taste.

"Chip? Plan B!" Cassandra's raised voice reached him, and then his pod opened, his restraints letting go immediately.

He stepped out of his pod, grateful, but confused. As soon as he came out, he saw that all the other pods had been opened as well, and the diseased humans were free. "What have you done?" He yelled at the retreating Cassandra, who was being followed by her assistant (pet seemed almost the more appropriate term), Chip.

"Gave the system a shot of adrenaline, just to wake them up. See you!" She responded, all too cheerfully.

"Don't touch them!" He yelled, reaching to try and grab her by the wrist as she ran off, only just missing. He glanced back at the Matron and a nurse. "Whatever you do, don't touch them!" He shouted, then ran after Ro—Cassandra.

They ran around the room, ending up on the catwalk on the opposite side, looking back at the Matron and nurse. They looked over in just enough time to see one of the diseased touch the nurse, who fell over almost instantly: dead.

"Oh my god," Cassandra whispered, horrified.

"What the hell have you done!" The Doctor muttered, angrily.

"It wasn't me!" Cassandra retorted.

"One touch and you get every disease in the world, and I want that body safe, Cassandra." Shit, he meant to say he wanted Rose safe. Well, close enough. "We've got to go down."

"But there's thousands of them!" Cassandra balked, looking over the edge and down to the other floors where the diseased were still climbing out of their pods.

The diseased started coming down the stairs, getting far too close. "Run!" The Doctor yelled. "Down! Down! Go!"

"This building is under quarantine," a voice over a speaker proclaimed.

They raced down the stairs, thankfully able to move much more quickly than the sick people behind them. "Keep going down!" The Doctor ordered, sending them down flight after flight of stairs. They ran out of stairs far too quickly, and burst through a door into the basement. Cassandra went straight to the lifts, and started jamming on the buttons to call one. "No, the lifts have closed down. That's the quarantine. Nothing's moving," he called, looking back around the room frantically for an escape.

Cassandra ran past him again. "This way!" She yelled, completely panicking now. He ran after her, Chip, just behind, down a confusing array of halls. The diseased had caught up to them by now, and they lost Chip along the way. The Doctor felt bad about that, but he couldn't risk losing Cassandra, not while she had Rose's body.

They eventually ended up in Cassandra's lair, if the psych-graft machine and old support frame containing bits of Cassandra (the all-skin one) were anything to go by. Cassandra tried to run out a door on the other end of the room, but there were diseased waiting behind it. She slammed it shut, and leaned against it. "We're trapped!" She shouted, sounding close to tears. "What are we going to do?!"

"Well, for starters, you're going to leave that body," he informed her. "That psycho-graft is banned on every civilized planet. You're compressing Rose to death!"

"But I've got nowhere to go," she snapped walking away from him. "My original skin's _dead_." She turned to glare at him as if that were his fault. Oh, right, it kind of was.

"Not my problem," he shrugged. "You can float as atoms in the air. Now, get out." He ordered. He raised his sonic screwdriver threateningly when she refused to comply. "Give her back to me."

"You asked for it," she muttered darkly.

He realized his mistake only a second too late, and the next thing he knew, he was no longer in control of his body.

It was not a pleasant experience, having your mind compressed. He was able to do little more than block most of his mind, and watch as Cassandra toyed with his body. "Oh, he's slim," he heard his voice, but _off_, murmur appreciatively, a hand running down his torso. He'd have to bathe in acid, too. "And a little bit foxy. You've thought so too. I've been inside your head. You've been looking. You like it." Cassandra-him said to Rose.

Oh. Well. That was okay.

Oh, but there were the sick people again. His compressing mind snarled in anger as Cassandra shoved Rose out of the way so that she (he?) could go up the ladder and out of the room first.

And then he was himself again, no more compression. They were at the top of the ladder, and there was a locked hatch in between them and another stretch of ladder. The Diseased were climbing the ladder behind them, gaining ground quickly.

"Oh, blonde again," Rose muttered below him. Or, Cassandra, apparently. "Open it!" She yelled up at him.

"Not until you get out of her," He yelled back down, angry again.

"We need the Doctor!" Cassandra retorted angrily.

"I order you to get out of her!"

Ow. More compression. He would really be quite happy when all this mind swapping business was over.

Cassandra wasn't in his head very long this time, and when he checked, Rose was still Rose. A voice from below let him know that Cassandra had taken over one of the diseased; he thought it was a sort of poetic justice. Well, he would, if he didn't feel so bad for the poor soul Cassandra'd taken over.

The Doctor got the lift doors open, and pulled himself out, then reached back to help Rose. "Nice to have you back," he grinned.

The doors to the lift were just closing when he saw the pink mist that was Cassandra's consciousness stream out of the shaft and back into Rose. Bloody trampoline never learned.

"That was your _last_ warning Cassandra!" The Doctor snapped, glaring at her.

"Inside her head," Cassandra murmured, staring off into space. "They're so alone. They keep reaching out, just to hold us. All their lives and they've never been touched."

He stared at her for a moment. She was so different, even from what she'd been only a few minutes ago. He reached out a hand to her to help her up, and led her away from the lift doors. Rose was strong. She could last for a few minutes longer until he solved this.

He unlocked a door at the far end of the corridor, and let them into Ward twenty-six again. Immediately, the Duke's aid rushed them with a chair, growling out a war cry. The Doctor eventually convinced her, and the other survivors in the room, that neither he nor Rose/Cassandra was diseased. Of course, then he had to convince them all that it was a _very_ bad idea to call in the military and break quarantine; it was all very tedious, really. A suspiciously Northern voice in the back of his mind muttered _'Stupid apes.'_

Once he had everyone (slightly) calmed down, he went to work. He had a plan, and he was 74% positive it would work. He got the others to gather all the intravenous drip bags from the room, acquiring the cures for every single disease.

While they did that, he found a length of rope from one of the curtains, and tied it about himself, attaching the drip bags to it. "How's that, will that do?" He asked Rose once he was finished.

"I don't know, will it do for what?" She snapped back. Right, Cassandra, not Rose; he'd almost forgotten. He grunted in annoyance and ran to the lifts.

"The lifts aren't working!" Cassandra called, following him.

"Not moving. Different thing." He muttered, using his screwdriver to open the doors, revealing the empty shaft. He slipped the screwdriver between his teeth. "Here we go!" He ran forward and jumped, and, despite Cassandra's disbelieving protests, caught hold of the cable that held the lift.

"What do you think you're doing?" Cassandra shouted down at him.

"I'm going down!" He shouted back, around the screwdriver. He took a metal wheel contraption from his rope and attached it to the cable with the sonic. He gripped it, pleased when he didn't fall to his death, and looked back at Cassandra. "Come on."

"Hah!" She laughed in disbelief. "Not in a million years."

"I need another pair of hands," he protested, a bit annoyed with her delays. "What do you think? If you're so desperate to stay alive, why don't you live a little?"

The diseased poured out of an adjacent hall, and the occupants of Ward twenty-six sealed the doors without even a warning call to the Doctor or Cassandra. _'Stupid apes.'_ It wasn't even in a Northern accent this time.

Cassandra seemed to weigh her options before leaping onto the Doctor's back with a squeal of dismay. He grunted as she collided with him; Rose was much heavier than she looked. "You're _completely_ mad!" She complained. "I can see why she likes you."

"Going down!"

The ride down was perhaps a bit faster than was completely safe, and Cassandra screaming in his ear nearly forced him into another regeneration, but it was a fun ride, overall. Especially when the breaks actually worked.

Cassandra fell off of his back onto the lift while he got to work. "Now listen, when I say so, take a hold of that leaver," he instructed.

"There's still a quarantine down there, we can't—"

"Hold that leaver!" He shouted in her face. Rassilon, he missed Rose. "I'm cooking up a cocktail," he muttered, turning to the bin that held the disinfectant sprayed on the occupants of the lift. "Know a bit about medicine myself." He quickly dumped all of the cures from the drip bags into the bin, and checked to make sure Cassandra was holding the leaver. She was, albeit sulkily. He never in a million years thought he'd see Rose Tyler sulk. "Now, that lever's going to resist. But keep it in position. Hold onto it with everything you've got."

"What about you?"

He grinned, and pulled open the hatch into the lift. "I've got an appointment. The Doctor is in!" And with that, he dropped himself into the lift.

Taking out his screwdriver, he opened the doors to the lift, giving him a view of the lobby, hundreds of the diseased milling about. "I'm in here!" He yelled, getting their undivided attention. "Come on!"

"Don't tell them!" Cassandra yelled in annoyance from above him.

"Come and get me! Come on!" He encouraged, watching as the sick people started shuffling towards him. "Pull that leaver!" He yelled.

"Commence stage one disinfection," a voice said over the speaker in the lift. The concoction of remedies he'd mixed up poured from the ceiling, coating him and the diseased who were reaching in. He laughed gleefully as those touched by the spray were cleared of their illnesses. "Pass it on, pass it on!" He yelled, laughing.

Bit by bit, the diseased hugged and grasped hands until his cure was given to everyone in the room.

"What did they pass on?" Cassandra asked as he helped her through the hatch in the ceiling and to the floor. "Did you kill them all."

"No, that's your way of doing things," he exclaimed cheerfully, leading the way out into the lobby. "I'm the Doctor and I cured them!"

* * *

The Doctor stood in front of the tank of the Face of Boe. The police were down stairs, arresting the nurses and cataloging the new humans. He was pretty sure he was supposed to give them a statement, but that wasn't very likely. In all the hullabaloo, he'd almost forgotten why he'd come here in the first place: the Face of Boe.

"You were supposed to be dying," he informed the face, who was staring at him.

"_There are better things to do today. Dying can wait,"_ The Face of Boe responded telepathically. Cassandra started muttering, and the Doctor shushed her. _"I have grown tired of with the universe, Doctor, but you have taught me to look at it anew."_

"There are legends, you know, saying that you're millions of years old," the Doctor commented, walking forward to crouch in front of the tank.

The Face of Boe chuckled. _"There are? That would be impossible."_

"Wouldn't it just?" The Doctor agreed, smiling. "I got the impression there was something you wanted to tell me?" He hinted.

"_A great secret,_" Boe agreed.

"So the legend says."

"_It can wait."_

"Oh, does it have to?" The Doctor complained.

"_We shall meet again, Doctor, for the third time, for the last time, and the truth shall be told. Until that day—"_ The Face of Boe, and his tank, disappeared in a beam of blue light.

"That is enigmatic," the Doctor muttered, standing. "That is textbook enigmatic. And now for you," he sighed, turning to Cassandra.

"But everything's happy! Everything's fine. Can't you just leave me?" Cassandra pleaded.

"You've lived long enough, Cassandra. Leave that body and finish it," he said slowly, deliberately, the unspoken _'or I'll make you'_ very clear in his voice.

"I don't want to die," she cried, pressing a hand to her eyes.

"No one does."

"Help me!" She whined, still crying.

"I can't."

"Mistress!" Chip came running to the room, and the Doctor felt bad for completely forgetting his existence.

"Oh, you're alive!" Cassandra exclaimed.

"I kept myself safe for you, Mistress!" Chip proclaimed, obviously proud of himself.

"A body," Cassandra mused. "And not just that, a volunteer."

"Don't you dare," the Doctor warned, catching on. "He's got a life of his own."

"But I worship the Mistress! I welcome her!" Chip protested, staring at Cassandra with something like awe.

"You can't Cassandra, you—" It was too late, Cassandra was already flowing out of Rose's body and into Chip's. Rose collapsed as the last of Cassandra left her, and the Doctor lurched forward to catch her. "Oh! You alright?" He asked, holding her close to him while she tried to get her feet under her. Her eyes were still a bit glazed. He tried letting her go, but she started to fall again. "Whoa!" He hugged her to him again, waiting for her to completely stabilize this time. "Okay?"

"Yeah," she muttered, shaking her head a bit. She pulled away, and he was relieved to see her stand on her own. "Hello!" She smiled, still slightly dazed.

"Hello," he returned, grinning. "Welcome back."

"Oh sweet lord, I'm a walking doodle," Cassandra sighed, walking over to them in Chip's body.

"You can't stay in there," the Doctor groaned, tiring of this argument. "I'm sorry, Cassandra, but that's not fair. I can take you to the city. They can build you a skin tank and you can stand trial for what you've done."

Cassandra leaned her head on her fist the whole time, pretending to consider his offer. "Well, that would be rather dramatic. Possibly my finest hour, and certainly my finest hat, but I'm afraid we don't have time. Poor little Chip is only a half-life, and he's been through so much. His heart is racing so." She paused, assessing the body she was dwelling in. "He's failing. I don't think he's going to last—oh!" She groaned, and her knees buckled. Rose and the Doctor caught her and managed to ease her to the floor.

"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked tersely. He didn't expect to be responsible for Cassandra as she died. He'd thought he would just be able to drop her off and be done with her.

"I'm fine," Cassandra muttered, then frowned. "I'm dying…" she whispered, then forced a smile. "…but that's fine."

"We can take you to the city…" Rose started.

"No, you won't Cassandra interrupted. "Everything's new on this planet. There's no place for Chip and me anymore. You're right, Doctor. It's time to die, and that's good." She sounded more like she was trying convince herself than anything else.

Maybe it was because she changed just a bit. Or maybe it was because she was pitiful in her current state. But whatever it was, it made the Doctor speak. "Come on. There's one thing I can do."

* * *

The TARDIS started up, and the Doctor leaned against the console with a sigh. He'd just left Cassandra with a younger version of herself—pre-trampoline era. It was odd, but he felt less guilt about Cassandra the first time around, when he thought he'd been the one to kill her. This time all he did was watch, and he felt so much more guilt.

"I'm not sure I like the guilt complex in this body," he muttered to himself.

"You have a guilt complex in everybody," Rose informed him, walking into the room. "Here." She handed him a cup of tea, then curled up on the jump seat with her own.

He turned to look at her. She was in pajamas—sweat pants and a tank top, nothing too risqué. It was as close to domestic as they ever got, these little moments…he liked them far more than he should.

His mind switched gears to consider the dream again. The room she'd been in…he hadn't been able to see much of it, but it had seemed so familiar…His eyes widened slightly. The TARDIS. It had been a different desktop, but it was the TARDIS. Which meant that he had to have been in there somewhere…He ran through the faces he'd seen. There'd been a woman, and he was pretty sure it hadn't been him. There'd been a man with the woman, holding her in a sort of protective way; but he, the Doctor, would've been with Rose, not sheltering a woman, so that couldn't have been him, either.

That left the man who'd been tied up, and the one Rose had threatened to destroy.

"Let's not start this again, shall we?" Rose sighed, pulling him from his thoughts.

"Sorry, what?" He asked guiltily.

"The intense starring, the trying to puzzle me out," Rose waved a hand in annoyance. "It gets on my nerves."

He sat down next to her, and bumped her shoulder with his, a grin forming on his face. "But I like puzzles!" Was he flirting? Rassilon help him.

Rose chuckled. "Well, leave this one alone. I'm off to bed. Having your mind compressed nearly to death is surprisingly tiring. Night," she waved, and wandered from the room.

The Doctor watched her go, the frown back in place. Which man had he been?

* * *

**This chapter has been open on my laptop for three days. It gave me hell.**

**Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed!**

**Until next time!**


	14. Chapter 14

"Hurry up, Rose!" The Doctor's muffled voice reached her, even in the 1970's section of the wardrobe; an impressive feat.

"You do realize we have a time machine and therefore cannot be late!" She called back, shaking her head to herself. She couldn't hear a response, and so just assumed he was grumbling.

"_But you can be _early_," _the TARDIS informed her, almost smugly.

Rose sighed, and put back the cut off denim overalls she'd been considering. "What did you do, Red?"

"_You were needed elsewhere. Try rack thirty-four B on the eighth floor."_ Damn cryptic ship.

Rose went obligingly to the rack the TARDIS suggested, and raised an eyebrow. "Victorian dresses? Why did you send us to the Victorian era?" The TARDIS remained frustratingly silent.

* * *

Rose emerged into the console room about twenty minutes later, dressed in a light peach gown with minimal petticoats and a small bustle on the back. It had been the least cumbersome dress she'd been able to find in the wardrobe, and she thought longingly of the age of pants that she wished they could have landed in instead.

"Good, you're finally—" The Doctor popped up from under the grating when he heard her coming, but froze and stopped talking when he caught sight of her. Rose waited, keeping her expression carefully neutral as his eyes raked over her Victorian-era-clad body.

"Nineteen," he mumbled at last, his eyes coming to a rest on her face. "I said _19_79, not _18_79. Don't get me wrong, you look beautiful, er, lovely, ah _nice_. You look _nice_. But not appropriate for the 70's at all. Especially not the late 70's, though, honestly, a bin bag might be more appropriate for the late 70's. Especially at an Ian Dury concert; no you need to go change, you'll die of heat stroke in that thing and then what'll I do?" He seemed to regain himself a bit near the end, and cut off what Rose was pretty sure could have ended up being a very long ramble indeed.

"Humor me," Rose shrugged, and went to the door.

There was some quiet mumbling from behind her, but Rose heard the sounds of the Doctor pulling himself out from under the grating completely. "Fine," he told her, smirking, and brushing past her to the door. "But you're going to feel awfully silly when I open this door and we're…" He'd opened the door while he was talking, and stepped out, looking at her all the while. When he finally glanced at his surroundings, he saw that they were surrounded by Scottish soldiers with guns, which caused him to falter. "…in 1879." He turned to glare at Rose, who was stepping daintily out of the TARDIS. "Did you press a button?" He asked accusingly.

"You will explain your presence," one of the soldiers—the leader, probably a Captain, it seemed—ordered in a Scottish accent.

The Doctor brightened almost immediately. "Are we in Scotland?" He asked, affecting his own Scottish accent. Rose let her head fall into her hand.

"How can you be ignorant of that?" The Captain asked suspiciously.

"Oh, I'm—I'm dazed and confused," the Doctor started, before Rose cut across him.

"Quite right he is. You'll have to excuse my brother here, gets lost in his mind sometimes, the poor dear," Rose smiled sympathetically at the glaring Doctor, and patted his arm.

"Let them approach," an imperious voice called from a carriage, interrupting whatever (possibly clever, most likely long winded) response the Doctor had prepared for Rose's little stunt.

"I don't think that's wise, ma'am," the Captain called towards the carriage, obviously reluctant and still suspicious of Rose and the Doctor. Rose tried to smile disarmingly at him; she was pretty sure it just made it worse.

"Let them approach," the voice said again, more firmly now.

Rose smirked at the guard, then linked arms with the Doctor as they made their way to the carriage. As they drew level with the carriage, a footman pulled the door open, revealing an older woman wearing a black gown. Rose immediately dropped into a curtsey. "Doctor, might I introduce her Majesty Queen Victoria. Empress of India and Defender of the Faith."

"I thought I recognized your voice, Dame Rose," Queen Victoria commented, looking Rose up and down. The Doctor glanced at her with an eyebrow raised in question; Rose ignored him. "When I saw you last, you said you were going to India. You seemed to have made a wrong turn," The Queen observed wryly.

"Ah, yes, well," Rose chuckled nervously, reaching up to tug on her ear—and unconscious habit she'd picked up from the Doctor. "My brother here wrote to me, requesting my presence, so I had to make a slight change in plans."

"I see…" Queen Victoria murmured, turning her gaze now to the Doctor and looking him over shrewdly. The Doctor smiled and waved slightly. Her eyes switched back over to Rose. "And where is your other brother? Jack, I believe his name was?"

"Ah, he, um, moved to America. Always a bit of a rebel, our Jack."

"Good, good. Maybe America would be a bit more…apt to deal with him. But what of you two? What brings you all the way out here?"

"We took a walk away from our carriage, and seemed to have gone much further than we realized," the Doctor supplied, for which Rose was grateful; she was running out of lies.

"Sir Robert MacLeish lives but ten miles hence. We'll send word ahead, he'll shelter us for tonight, then we can reach Balmoral tomorrow," the Captain from earlier informed them, riding over on his horse.

"Dame Rose and her brother will be accompanying us," the Queen stated. "It is almost nightfall, and if the two of you have walked as far as you say, then you shall need shelter for the night."

"Thank you, ma'am," The Doctor and Rose said simultaneously.

The Captain nodded, albeit reluctantly. "Yes, ma'am. We had better get going."

"Indeed. And there are stories of wolves in these parts. Fanciful tales intended to scare the children. But good for the blood, I think. Drive on!" The footman closed the door to the Queen's carriage, and the procession began moving again.

Rose and the Doctor walked together behind the carriage, their arms still linked. "Dame Rose? What were you and Jack doing in the Victorian Era?" He asked quietly, leaning his head down close to hers.

Rose shrugged, a hint of a smile playing at the corner of her lips. "We got bored. I managed to fix his vortex manipulator a few times, but we couldn't go very far. I didn't have the right tech to fix it properly. We had something of a run in with Herself up there…" Rose grinned, her tongue peeking out. "Queen Vicky wasn't overly fond of Jack; he still pouts about it!" She giggled.

* * *

The walk to Sir Robert MacLeish's estate was a bit long, but pleasant. Rose told the Doctor of her and Jack's exploits when they were last in 1879, the Doctor taking far too much pleasure in the fact that Queen Victoria hadn't liked Jack.

Night was falling when they reached the estate, and Rose raised an eyebrow upon seeing the name. "Look," she murmured, elbowing the Doctor and pointing to the sign proclaiming the estate to be called "Torchwood."

"Isn't that where Jack-?" The Doctor murmured. Rose nodded. "Curious…"

They were given a quick tour of the house, but the most interesting room by far was the one that housed Sir Robert's late father's telescope. It was a beautiful piece of work—completely useless, mind you, far too many prisms and the magnification was way over the top—and both Rose and the Doctor admired it (especially once Rose got the Doctor to stop pointing out the telescope's flaws).

They all retired to their rooms afterwards, with the intention of reconvening for diner at seven. Rose and the Doctor were given rooms right across from each other, but each chose to stay in their own rooms for a bit, rather than socialize with one another.

Rose hummed to herself as she looked around the room. It was nice, charming; cozy with wood tones, and a large bed. It would do as a replacement for her room on the TARDIS for one night, at least.

An odd noise caught her attention after a few moments. It was…like breathing, but irregular. Rose went still, listening for the source of the breathing before she quietly made her way towards a wardrobe. Grasping the handles, she took a deep breath, then threw them open, ready for an attack.

Instead, she was met with the sight of a maid; a very frightened, rather young, maid.

"It's alright, you're safe, I'm not going to hurt you," Rose said softly, smiling reassuringly. She held out a hand to the maid to help her out of the closet. The maid took Rose's hand hesitantly, but allowed Rose to pull her from the closet.

"What's happened that has you so frightened?" Rose asked, leading the maid over to sit on the bed.

The maid bunched her apron in her hands in attempt to still her shaking. "They came through the house…" she whispered, her voice quivering a bit. "The incitements, they took the Steward and the Master. And my Lady," she added desperately.

Rose frowned, wondering who "they" were. "Listen, I'm here with a friend—we can help you. Let's go talk to him, and we'll work something out, alright?" Rose smiled kindly, and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder in an attempt to calm her.

"Oh, but I can't, Miss," the girl insisted, shaking her head almost violently.

"What's your name?" Rose asked after a moment, trying to figure out how to calm the poor girl.

"Flora, Miss."

"Flora, we'll be safe," Rose promised. "There's more people arrived downstairs; soldiers and everything, and they can help us. I promise. Come on. Okay? Come on." With a bit of cajoling, Rose managed to convince Flora to leave the room. They'd only just stepped into the hall when Rose was grabbed harshly from the side, her shoulder colliding with something solid, yet very human. She opened her mouth to scream, but a hand clamped down over her mouth, and a strange smell filled her nose. She struggled against her attackers as the color seemed to drip out of the world, trying desperately to make some sort of noise to alert the Doctor to her predicament.

* * *

_Waking up again; such an odd feeling, the sudden awareness of one's surroundings…she wasn't sure how she felt about it yet. There were voices around her, loud and insistent, quiet and hesitant. _

_Rose…Rose…Wolf…Rose…_

_So many different voices, so many meaningless words._

_Her eyes drifted open as she took in her surroundings once more. They'd moved her; she was in an overly sterile room with metal tools…an infirmary of some sort, she thought._

_She tried to sit up, but found her arms and legs had been strapped to the table she was lying on. Some instinctual understanding of facial muscles caused her to bare her teeth in a silent growl._

_Faces appeared in her field of vision: the unimportant man and woman from earlier, a man whose existence was almost as abominable as her own, and the hated man. All shoving their heads into the space above her own, peering down at her like she was some sort of specimen._

_She supposed she was._

"_Let me go," she demanded, voice dead pan and eyes focused on the hated one. He had the power here; that she knew. Her sister was yelling again. How she wished to silence her._

"_Rose…" His voice was…odd, strained almost. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Rose I know you're…confused right now, and angry, but we're going to take care of you, alright? You just need to stay in here for a little while."_

_She stared at him for a moment, considering. "Why do you keep calling me that?" She asked finally._

_He blinked. "It's…it's your name, isn't it?"_

"_A stolen name for a stolen body. I have no name."_

"_Rose…" he whispered, his voice odd again. _

_She closed her eyes and refused to talk to any of them after that, waiting for them to leave her. She opened her eyes once she was sure they were gone, and twisted her wrist (oh, physical pain—now _that_ she remembered) until she could place a finger on one of her bindings. Golden light started to swirl as she concentrated. If they thought they would be able to keep her here with something as simple as these straps, they were sorely mistaken…_

* * *

Rose's eyes snapped open, and she half expected to find herself in the TARDIS infirmary, still strapped to that table.

"Don't make a sound," A woman whispered to her, her eyes glued on something Rose couldn't see from her position.

Rose stifled a groan and pulled herself upright. She was in a basement…or a dungeon. Depended on whether she wanted to be optimistic or pessimistic. Taking in the lack of lighting and the household staff she was chained to, Rose decided to go with dungeon.

"Sorry, what?" Rose mumbled at last, shaking her head to clear the last of whatever drug they'd used on her.

"They said if we scream or shout, then he will slaughter us," the woman insisted.

Rose looked to the other side of the room where the woman, and all the others, were staring in fear. In the scant lighting, she could just barely make out a cage, with a man sitting hunched over inside of it.

"But…he's in a cage. He's a prisoner, like us," Rose muttered, keeping her eyes glued on the figure. He was just another prisoner. Right?

"He's nothing like us," the woman whispered, her voice shaking with fear. "That creature is not mortal."

As if he heard them—which was very possible, Rose supposed—the man lifted his head to stare at them with completely black eyes.

Right, time to come up with an escape plan, then. First thing's first: she needed to know just what she was dealing with.

Slowly, her eyes on the black-eyed man, Rose stood and began to walk towards him, drawing as close as the chains would allow her. The woman who'd been speaking to her begged her not to, but Rose ignored her. "Who are you?" She asked gently. It was possible this creature really was just as trapped as they were; best to approach him with kindness, first. "Where are you from? You're not from Earth. What planet are you from?"

"Oh…" the man crooned, his voice thick with malice as he drew the syllable out. "Intelligence…"

Okay, so that wasn't the best of signs. "Where were you born?" Rose tried again.

"This body... ten miles away... a weakling, heartsick boy." His voice was slow, almost light sounding. It raised the small hairs on the back of Rose's neck. "Stolen away at night by the brethren from my cultivation. I carved out his soul and sat in his heart." The creature bared its teeth as it spoke, the lightness replaced with a heavy darkness.

"Alright," Rose murmured, refusing to show her fear. "So the body's human…but what about you? Inside of it, controlling it. What are you?"

"So far from home…" the creature murmured, almost sadly.

"If you want to get back home, we can help," Rose offered. If they could keep him docile for now, offer him something he wanted…then maybe there was a chance they could all get out of this alive. If not…Rose didn't even know what he was yet, but she was nearly positive that things were not going to work out in their favor if this thing became angry.

"Why would I leave this place?" He asked, almost curiously. "A world of industry, of workforce and warfare. I could turn it to such purpose." The sinister tone was back, and Rose's mind raced to come up with an escape plan. There was no reasoning with him now, she knew that tone of voice; it was the tone that said he'd found something he wanted, and he had a plan to get it. It was a tone that implied death was coming.

"How would you do that?" She asked, stalling now, her eyes glancing around the room for anything she could use to break the chains.

"I would migrate to the Holy Monarch."

_That_ caught Rose's attention. "You mean Queen Victoria?" She asked, eyes focused on him once more.

"With one bite, I would pass into her blood. And then it begins. The Empire of the Wolf!" Oh, this was so not good… "So many questions…" he tilted his head, observing Rose curiously, then lunged forward with a snarl, making Rose and the others jump. "Look!" He murmured excitedly. "Look inside your eyes, you've seen it too!"

"Seen what?" _Gotta get out, gotta get out…_

"The Wolf! There is something of the wolf about you." His last word came out as a snarl.

Rose stilled. "How did you know that?" She murmured, her fear forgotten in her curiosity. She tried to take a step closer to him, but the chains binding her held her in place.

"You burned like the _sun_," he spat in disgust. "But all I require is the _moon_."

As if on cue, the cellar doors (oh, she was back to thinking of it as a basement, that was good! Meant she was optimistic….now how the hell was she going to get out of here…) were thrown open, allowing the moonlight from the full moon to pour in, streaming across the floor like liquid, until it landed on the creature in the cage. He sighed, almost as if in bliss, and pressed his face to the cage to further feel the light.

"Moonlight," he crooned, a smile crossing his face.

"Right, question time's over!" Rose announced hurrying back over to the other prisoners. "Don't look at him, alright? Listen to me!" She yelled urgently, over the sound of the rising wind. "Don't look at him! Grab a hold of the chain, and _pull!_"

Growling came from the cage, but Rose kept shouting at the others not to look; they were of no use to her if they started panicking over a man turning into a…well, wolf, if she had to guess. She really hoped not, thought. "With me! Pull!" She urged them on, watching the bolts holding the chain to the wall slowly loosen.

'_Come on…come on…let go!'_ They were low on time. Every second, the screams coming from the cage sounded less and less human, and more and more animalistic. She did _not_ want to be around when he finished!

"One, two, three, _Pull!_" And the chain finally fell free of the wall, clattering to the floor. Seconds later, the Doctor burst into the room, sonic at the ready. "Where the hell have you been?" Rose snapped, then started ushering the others out of the room. The man in the cage was a man no more, not even in appearance. Rose risked a glance at him before the Doctor pulled her from the room and started running.

He was huge, and furry, with rippling muscles. His teeth alone could kill several of them in one bite, and the claws were just overkill (hah, get it? Over_kill_? Okay, maybe not the best time to be making puns…) at this point.

"Oh, that is beautiful," the Doctor muttered, glancing over his shoulder.

"Stop admiring the thing that's trying to kill us and run!" Rose snapped. Honestly, it was the Slitheen all over again.

A howl echoed behind them as they ran.

* * *

They had barricaded themselves in the library; what was left of them, anyway. They hadn't seen Lady Isobel or the other women (save Rose and the Queen) in a long time, and many of the soldiers had died after they thought they'd killed the wolf.

It was just Rose, the Doctor, Sir Robert, and Queen Victoria now. The wolf seemed unable to penetrate the walls of this room, which were made of mistletoe (the Doctor kindly informed them after licking a wall. The quirks that man had…), though the monks surrounding the house kept them from trying to escape through a window. For the moment, they were well and truly trapped.

They were all flipping through books, trying to find something useful. Though, honestly, Rose doubted very much that they would be able to find something to help them defeat a lupine wavelength haemovariform (as the creature had been identified as) in an Earth book.

"Oh," the Doctor murmured, drawing Rose's attention. He'd been perched on a ladder, but he jumped down now, staring intently into the book he was holding. "Look at what your old dad found," he muttered to Sir Robert as he made his way to a table. "Something fell to Earth."

Rose hurried over to stare at the illustration in the book. It looked like some sort of rock falling from the sky. "Some sort of primitive spaceship?" Rose asked, frowning as she traced the rock like picture with a finger.

"No, a shooting star," Sir Robert corrected.

'_Same thing,'_ Rose thought to herself. She'd like to say it aloud, but apparently the Doctor was the rude one in their relationship.

"Listen to this," Sir Robert continued, reading aloud from the book now. "'In the year of our Lord, 1540, under the reign of King James the Fifth, an almighty fire did burn in the pit.' That's the Glen of Saint Catherine just by the Monastery."

"Over three hundred years…" Rose murmured, and looked up at the Doctor. "What do you think it's been waiting for?"

"Maybe just a single cell survived," the Doctor mused. "Adapting slowly down the generations. It survived through the humans. Host after host after host."

"But why does it want the throne?" Sir Robert protested. Rose had to admit, the man was taking this business of aliens and werewolves very well.

"It said the Empire of the Wolf…" Rose muttered, looking away. "The devastation it could cause…History accelerated. Rocket ships fueled by coal and steam…History would be completely destroyed…"

"Sir Robert!" The Queen shouted suddenly. She'd been fairly useless in all this, and Rose was rather disappointed in her.

"If I am to die here," she started. Sir Robert, being the loyal (despite the whole letting evil monks and a werewolf take over his house thing) subject he was, cut her off to protest the death of his queen. "I would destroy myself rather than let that creature infect me." _'There's the Queen Vic I know,'_ Rose smiled to herself. "But that's no matter. I ask only that you find some place of safekeeping for something far older and more precious than myself."

"Hardly the time to worry about your valuables," The Doctor muttered, still pouring over the tome on the table.

"Thank you for opinion," Queen Victoria glared. "But there is nothing more valuable than this." She reached into her bag and pulled out a diamond.

"Is that the Koh-I-Noor?" Rose asked, slightly amazed. She had a slight weakness for shiny things in this body, not that she would admit it.

"Oh yes…" the Doctor murmured, interested now. "The greatest diamond in the world.

"Given to me as the spoils of war," Queen Victoria explained as she looked at it. "Perhaps its legend is now coming true. It is said that whoever owns it must surely die."

"That's true of anything if you own it long enough," Rose shrugged.

"May I?" The Doctor asked, holding out his hand. Queen Victoria handed it to him, which surprised Rose a bit. She thought that the Queen might be a bit less willing to hand the most valuable jewel in the world over to a man she'd know for less than a day. But then, there was a werewolf prowling outside the door, so stranger things had happened. "That is so beautiful," the Doctor murmured as he examined it.

"Where is the wolf?" Sir Robert muttered, wandering away. "I don't like this silence."

"Why do you travel with it?" Rose asked curiously.

"My annual pilgrimage," The Queen explained. "I'm taking it to Helier and Carew. The Royal Jewelers at Hazelhead. The stone needs re-cutting."

"Oh, but it's perfect!" Rose protested, eyeing the diamond.

"My late husband never thought so," Queen Victoria responded, a bit sadly.

"Now, there's a fact," the Doctor said, removing his glasses (which Rose knew for a fact he didn't need—he just thought they made him look smart. They did.) "Prince Albert kept on having the Koh-I-Noor cut down. It used to be forty percent bigger than this. But he was never happy. Kept on cutting and cutting."

"He always said…" the Queen paused. "That the shine was not quite right. He died with it unfinished."

"Unfinished…" The Doctor mused, and Rose could practically see the circuits going into overdrive in his head. "Oh yes!" He tossed the diamond to the Queen, who caught it with a glare. "There's a lot of unfinished business in this house. His father's research—your husband, Ma'am, he came here and he sought the perfect diamond; hold on, hold on—" he rubbed a hand through his hair violently as he tried to work it out. Rose sat back to watch. "All these separate things, they're not separate at all, they're connected! Oh, my head, my head! What if—this house, it's a trap for you—is that right, Ma'am?" He whirled to face Queen Victoria.

"Obviously," she sniffed.

"At least, that's what the wolf intended. But! What if there's a trap inside the trap?" He exclaimed. Rose grinned slowly, understanding dawning on her. She let out a quiet laugh. Oh, those brilliant humans…

"Explain yourself, Doctor," Queen Victoria demanded.

"What if his father and your husband weren't just telling each other stories." He was fairly dancing now, he was so excited. "They dared to imagine all this was true. And they planned against it. Laying the real trap not for you... but for the wolf."

A bit of plaster rained down on their heads, and they looked as one towards the glass domed ceiling to see the wolf pacing on the glass, cracking it. "That wolf there," Rose muttered, tossing aside her book.

"Run run run!" The Doctor yelled, ushering the Queen from the room, tossing aside the barricades they'd so carefully constructed. They slammed the doors behind them and took off running once more. "We've got to get to the observatory!" The Doctor yelled.

The wolf was gaining on them, snarling. Rose watched the others turn the corner, then turned to face the wolf, screaming at it in rage and letting her eyes go gold. The Wolf skidded to a halt, almost whimpering.

A pan of water flew out of nowhere it struck the wolf in the face; it snarled and ran away. Rose turned and saw Lady Isobel.

"Nice shot!" The Doctor shouted; apparently he'd come back when he'd noticed Rose was gone.

"It was mistletoe!" Lady Isobel responded, a bit out of breath.

Sir Robert went to his wife immediately, and the two took a moment together.

"What were you thinking?" The Doctor hissed, glaring at Rose before crushing her in a hug.

"He said something to me in the cellar…" She muttered from where her face was pressed against his chest. "That I had something of the wolf about me…and that I had burned like the sun." She shrugged, and pulled away from him. "I thought I'd try it, and it worked," she grinned.

The Doctor hugged her again. "Don't ever scare me like that again," he ordered, and pressed a kiss to her hair. Rose thought she felt a bit of extra blood in her cheeks.

Lady Isobel and the other women (save Rose and the Queen) took off for the kitchens once more. "Come on!" The Doctor yelled, and the remaining four took off for the observatory.

They made it there in record time, and slammed the doors shut. "No mistletoe in these doors your father wanted the wolf to get inside!" The Doctor growled, spinning around, trying to find something to block the doors with. "Get inside I just need time! Is there any way of barricading this?!"

"Just do your work and I'll defend it," Sir Robert ordered.

The Doctor ignored him. "If we could bind them shut with rope or something!"

"I said I'd find you time, Sir," Sir Robert said determinedly. "Now get inside."

Rose stepped forward, ready to protest. Maybe her little trick would work a second time, maybe no one else would have to die…

The Doctor put a hand on her shoulder to still her and keep her quiet. "Good man," he said solemnly.

Sir Robert nodded, and went out into the hall, closing the door behind him.

"Your majesty, the diamond if you please," the Doctor said, turning to the Queen.

"For what purpose?" She demanded. Oh, now she wanted to be all grabby. Figures.

"The purpose it was designed for."

* * *

Things finished rather quickly after that; they got the diamond into the telescope where it was able to magnify the moon's light and destroy the werewolf. It managed to cut Queen Victoria (not that she would admit it) beforehand though.

Sir Robert died defending his queen, and he would be remembered with honor.

Rose and the Doctor were knighted (Rose had to admit to the Queen that the title of "Dame" she'd been using had been a lie first; that had not been a pleasant conversation), and then banished in the next breath.

Now they were just relaxing on the TARDIS, drifting in the Vortex.

"Werewolves…I meet the strangest creatures traveling with you," Rose murmured to the Doctor, leaning on his shoulder. They were both sitting on the jump seat, the Doctor propping his longer legs up on the console, while Rose sat with her shorter ones curled underneath her.

"Hm," The Doctor smiled. "Someday we'll do vampires," he promised, grinning. There was silence for a moment. "There's still one thing I don't understand, though," he said, pulling away so he could look at her, frowning.

"What?"

"How'd you know we were going to the 1800's?" He demanded.

Rose grinned, and settled back down against him. "A little bird told me."

* * *

**A bit lighter on all the secrets this time, but you get another look at Rose's first day! I'm trying to shorten these chapters a bit, because I honestly do not need to include as much as I do. I think I'm failing in the shortening aspect, though.**

**So there are some episodes coming up that I'm really looking forward to! The Girl in the Fireplace, The Age of Steel, The Stan Pit, Doomsday... I've been wondering, have you guys started to guess how I'm going to do Doomsday? I'm curious.**

**Also, if you're curious about Rose's dress, I posted a link to it on my profile. Here's hoping it works!**

**Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed!**

**Until next time!**


	15. Chapter 15

"I still say you cheated."

"Rose, we drew straws; you lost fair and square."

"Only 'cause you cheated."

"How does one even cheat at drawing straws?"

"I don't know, but you did." Rose glared at him one last time before shoving her dinner lady hat on and marching towards the kitchens.

The Doctor grinned at her back, amused, before making his way to his classroom. There had been only two positions open at the school—one of which only became available because the Doctor slipped a winning lottery ticket to an employee—a physics teacher and a dinner lady. Since both Rose and the Doctor were qualified (over qualified, honestly) to teach physics, they'd drawn straws on who would take it. Rose got the losing straw and was thus sentenced to serve two days as a dinner lady.

The Doctor _had_ cheated of course (there was no way he was going to be a dinner lady!) but he would never tell Rose that—he valued his life too much.

Jack had called them here, had said something was off about the school. When the Doctor asked why Torchwood didn't deal with it, Jack had started mumbling about bureaucracy, hierarchy, and someone named Yvonne Hartman. The point was Torchwood wasn't going to do anything about it, so it was up to Team TARDIS, as Jack had called them.

The Doctor had to agree something was going on here—the students were _way_ too smart for 21st century Earth—but he hadn't been able to quite figure out what yet. Neither had Rose, but the Doctor had a feeling that that was because she'd been too busy complaining about being a dinner lady.

* * *

Sarah Jane Smith. The Doctor spent his last three classes thinking of her (usually with a ridiculously large grin on his face). She was older than he remembered her being, but then, that was to be expected. Still, it was wonderful—fantastic, even—to see her; and especially to see her doing well, to be living a life worthy of any human. She had a job, and she seemed to enjoy it.

He'd left her, and he'd always love her—she'd been a wonderful companion—but he hadn't ruined her life, and for that, he was grateful.

Well, the past aside, it was time to figure out what was happening here. They (they consisting of the Doctor, Rose, and Jack) waited until it was dark, then broke into the school. Rose made a face as she looked around. "It's weird without all the people. I don't like it."

The Doctor ignored her. "All right, team. Oh, I hate people who say 'team'. Um... 'gang'. Um... 'comrades'. Uh... anyway, Rose, go to the kitchen and get a sample of that oil. Jack, the new staff are all Maths teachers, go and check out the Maths department. I'm gonna look in Finch's office. Be back here in ten minutes," he ordered, then turned and strode off towards the Headmaster's office.

Finch was the man he'd had his interview with when he'd applied for the position; something about the man was just terribly off, and the Doctor was not overly fond of him.

Besides, the man had an unhealthy obsession with chips. It was weird.

There was the sound of flapping and screeching ahead, and the Doctor quickened his stride. It sounded like bats but…bigger? That was odd. He rounded the corner in just enough time to hear a door slam. He winced, realizing it was the door that led to the closet where he'd parked the TARDIS.

On second thought, perhaps it hadn't been the best idea to hide the TARDIS inside the suspicious school with the creepy staff and overly intelligent students.

Before he could open the door to the closet, Sarah Jane Smith backed out of the room, her eyes wide with shock. The Doctor's own eyes widened in shock for a moment, before his face relaxed. Really, he shouldn't be that surprised; wasn't he the one who'd taught Sarah Jane to investigate all things strange?

She turned to face him after a moment, her eyes still wide. "Hello, Sarah Jane," he murmured quietly, watching her closely for her reaction.

"It's you…" she whispered, taking a short step closer. "Oh, Doctor…" she started to smile, and the Doctor relaxed. "Oh, my God, it's you…it's…you've regenerated."

He supposed that was as good a place as any to start. "Half a dozen times since we last met," he agreed.

"You look incredible."

He grinned, resisting the urge to preen. "So do you."

"I got old," she dismissed. The Doctor frowned a bit, but didn't comment. She slowly walked around him, as if taking him in. "What're you doing here?" She asked eventually.

"Well... UFO sightings, school gets record results—I couldn't resist. What about you?"

"Same." They laughed, and for a moment it was like old times. But then… "I thought you'd died," she whispered, sounding close to tears. The Doctor kept his face carefully blank. "I waited for you and you didn't come back, and I thought you must've died…"

"I lived," he said softly. "Everyone else died."

"What do you mean?" She asked, poor confused human. Blessedly ignorant human.

"Everyone died, Sarah," he whispered, trying to mask the pain in his voice.

Sarah Jane shook her head, but, thankfully, had the good sense not to ask. "I still can't believe it's you."

Of course, Jack chose that moment to start yelling curses on the other side of the school.

"Okay, now I can," Sarah Jane grinned before the two took off running towards the ruckus.

Rose skidded around a corner, almost crashing into the two of them. "Did you hear that?" She asked. "Oh, who're you?" She blinked at Sarah Jane.

"Rose, Sarah Jane! Sarah Jane, Rose!" The Doctor introduced cheerfully.

The two shook hands, looking each other over critically. "Hi, nice to meet you," Sarah Jane smiled, though it looked a bit…forced. "You can tell you're getting older," she commented to the Doctor, ignoring Rose as if she weren't in the room. "Your assistants are getting younger."

"Assistant?" Rose asked, one eyebrow skyrocketing.

Oh. Oh this…was not good. Time to run!

The Doctor took off running towards where they'd heard Jack yelling, effectively stopping any fighting that might have happened between Rose and Sarah Jane.

They found him in a classroom—science, by the looks of it—surrounded by dead rats sealed in plastic bags. He was trying to shove the rats into a closet, and still cursing when they came in. "Sorry," he muttered, once he saw them. "Was going through the cupboards when all of these fell out." He paused for a moment, eyes landing on Sarah Jane. "Hi," he grinned charmingly, holding out a hand. "Captain Jack Harkness, and you are?"

"Stop it," the Doctor sighed, irritated.

"Sarah Jane Smith," the woman in question responded, smiling and shaking Jack's hand.

"Vacuum packed rats?" Rose murmured, crouching down to look at them, and ignoring the others in the room.

"And you decided to scream?" The Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow at Jack.

"I didn't exactly expect to suddenly be showered in dead rats, now did I?" Jack snapped.

"Girls, you're both pretty," Rose sighed, standing back up. "Is anyone concerned about the vacuum packed rats being stored in a school?"

"Well, obviously they use them in Biology lessons," Sarah Jane shrugged, looking rather unconcerned. "They dissect them. Or maybe you haven't reached that bit yet. How old are you?" She looked at Rose innocently, and the Doctor started to wonder if maybe he should separate the two.

"Bet you ten quid I'm older than you," Rose mumbled before turning to Jack. "You people really do that? Dissect rats as a class?" She wrinkled her nose in distaste.

Jack shrugged. "I'm not exactly from around here, am I?"

"Anyway!" The Doctor interrupted loudly. Sarah Jane was still glaring at Rose, but she seemed a bit confused this time. "Everything started when Mr. Finch arrived. We should go and check his office." He marched out of the room without waiting for a response. Maybe if he could keep the two women moving, he could keep them from fighting.

"So, how do you know the Doctor?" He heard Rose ask from somewhere behind him. She sounded like she was at least _trying_ to be polite. She was failing miserably, but it was the thought that counted. Right?

"Sarah Jane Smith. I used to travel with the Doctor," she responded proudly.

"Ah," was Rose's only response.

'_I don't like her.'_ The Doctor nearly jumped out of his skin at the mental contact. It took him a moment to realize the shimmering presence in his mind was Rose; she hadn't spoken to him telepathically since Downing Street, and never on purpose. _'She's rude,'_ she added after a moment.

'_So'm I, and you put up with me!'_ The Doctor responded, trying to communicate a cheeky grin along with the thought.

Rose snorted behind him, and the Doctor sighed.

Jack was chuckling quietly beside him, and the Doctor turned to glare at him. "Every man's nightmare, Doc," the American said quietly, grinning. "The missus and the ex."

The Doctor started walking faster.

* * *

Rose hung back a bit as the Doctor used the Sonic to unlock the door to the headmaster's office.

"Maybe the rats are food," the Doctor mused as he pushed the door open.

"Food for what?" Jack asked.

The Doctor stepped into the office, followed by Jack and Sarah Jane. Rose brought up the rear, and tried to stay away from Sarah Jane. Her reasons for disliking the woman primarily consisted of the fact that she wasn't overly fond of anyone who hated her for no apparent reason.

Okay, that was a lie; the reason was apparent: Sarah Jane was upset that the Doctor had moved on, and she was taking it out on Rose. Rose could understand that, really, she could, but that didn't mean she had to put up with being treated like an ignorant child.

"Okay," Jack muttered, eyes fixed on the ceiling. "Of all the things I expected, I think this was at the very bottom of the list."

Rose looked at him curiously, the looked up at the ceiling. Her eyes widened as she took in the bat-like creatures hanging there, asleep. They were the size of fully grown humans—tall ones, at that, as she was pretty sure all of the creatures were taller than she was.

Quietly, the four of them slipped out of the room, being careful not to wake the bat-creatures. They hurried out of the school as well, silently agreeing that there should probably be a bit more space between them and the bats.

"Thirteen," Rose muttered once they were outside, looking at the school thoughtfully. "Thirteen big bat creatures," she turned her head to look at the Doctor.

"When Finch arrived, he brought with him seven new teachers, four dinner ladies and a nurse. Thirteen," the Doctor agreed. "I need the TARDIS," he decided after a moment.

"Just a thought," Jack interjected. "Shouldn't we stay away from the bat things until we know what they are? Or if they intend to kill us?"

"We need to find out what this oil is," Rose explained, pulling the vial from her pocket where she'd stuck it after running from the kitchen when she'd heard Jack yelling earlier.

"I might be able to help you, there," Sarah Jane spoke up, speaking exclusively to the Doctor, Rose noticed. "I've got something to show you!" She hurried off toward the car park, The Doctor following excitedly enough. Jack looked at her and shrugged before following. Rose sighed.

Sarah Jane hurried over to a car, opening the boot excitedly where something covered in a green blanket was sitting. She whipped the blanket aside, revealing a, very old, robotic dog.

"K-9!" The Doctor crowed excitedly, sounding very much like a small child. Apparently this robot meant more to him than it did to Rose. "Rose Tyler, Captain Jack, allow me to introduce K-9! Well, K-9 Mark III, to be precise," he chattered excitedly.

Rose stepped forward curiously to get a better look. "About the year five thousand, yeah?" She asked, tilting her head to one side. "Looks like he's seen better days." She could almost feel Sarah Jane's glare after that last comment.

"He just stopped working one day," she said, a bit defensively. "And I couldn't exactly take him to a repair shop; there's enough technology in there to rewrite human science! I couldn't show him to anyone."

"Oh, what's the nasty lady done to you?" The Doctor cooed in a baby voice. Rose raised an eyebrow while Sarah Jane shot her something of a triumphant look.

Rose sighed, and moved to lean against the side of the car, staring up at the sky while the Doctor continued cooing over the metal dog.

"Right, we'll just fix him up!" The Doctor declared after a moment. "Few hours, he'll be right as rain!" He grinned cheerfully, and shut the boot of the car. "But not here. Too many bats here."

"There's a chippy down the street we could go to," Sarah Jane suggested, unlocking the doors to her car. They all climbed in (Rose with another sigh) and headed down to the chippy Sarah Jane had suggested.

* * *

"Any reason you're not over there helping?" Jack asked as Rose handed money to the lady behind the counter in exchange for her chips.

Rose shrugged, dumping vinegar onto the salty food. "She hasn't seen him in years…and, so far as I can tell, it didn't end particularly well between them. They've got some issues to work out, and I don't intend to get in their way," she explained, sitting down in a booth.

Jack sat across from her, stealing a chip and making a face at the amount of vinegar. "Bleck, how you can eat those…" he shook his head. "So, you're dealing with this all pretty well." Rose raised an eyebrow. "Well, okay, not _well_, per say, but you haven't punched her yet, and I take that as a good sign."

"What are you on about?" Rose asked, chuckling quietly at Jack's ridiculousness.

"Well she was obviously in love with the Doctor at one point or another," Jack said matter-of-factly. "Probably still is a bit. Doesn't that upset you?"

"Why should it?" Rose asked, tilting her head to one side. She shrugged. "The only thing about her that upsets me is her rudeness."

"The woman who used to be in love with the man you're in love with comes to town and you're not worried?" Jack smirked. "Sure."

Rose almost choked on a chip. "I'm not in love with him!" She protested.

"Could've fooled me…" Jack muttered, stealing another chip. He winced. "Right, I need to go get my own basket of these, you've killed yours."

He walked to the counter, leaving Rose alone at the booth. She watched him for a moment, then glanced over at the Doctor and Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane looked a bit upset and the Doctor was wearing his "I'm going to pretend nothing's wrong, please go with it" face. Rose looked away and back at her chips.

She wasn't in love with the Doctor. She wasn't.

"Rose, give us the oil!" The Doctor called. Rose abandoned her chips (she may have gotten a bit heavy handed with the vinegar after all) and walked over to the duo, Jack wandering over and munching on his own basket of chips. She handed the oil to the Doctor and looked at K-9 curiously. He looked a bit better now that he'd been fixed up, but still not great.

The Doctor slathered a bit of the oil on a sensor K-9 poked out, and they all waited for the analysis impatiently.

"Confirmation of analysis—substance is Krillitane oil," K-9 announced in its robotic voice.

"I need to get one of these for the hub," Jack murmured, crouching to get a better look. "What's a Krillitane?" He asked, still looking at the dog.

"Trouble," Rose sighed, rubbing her face. She was not a large fan of the Krillitane.

"They're a composite race," the Doctor explained, looking just about as happy as Rose. "Just like your culture is a mixture of traditions from all sorts of countries—people you've invaded or have been invaded by, you've got bits—bits of Viking, bits of France, bits of whatever—the Krillitanes are the same. An amalgam of the races they've conquered. But they take physical aspects as well. They cherry-pick the best bits from the people they destroy. That's why I didn't recognize them. The last time I saw Krillitanes, they looked just like us except they had really long necks."

"Funny, last time I saw them they were only about four feet tall," Rose commented. "But what are they doing here? No offense, but humans are pretty much only good at breeding." Jack and Sarah Jane both glared at her this time; she shrugged, unrepentant.

"It's the children," the Doctor muttered, horror marring his features. "They're doing something to the children."

* * *

They'd spent so much time working on K-9, that by the time they made it back to the school, classes were already starting for the day. "Rose and Sarah, you go to the Maths room," the Doctor ordered, stepping out of Sarah Jane's car and walking towards the school. "Crack open those computers, I need to see the hardware inside. Here, you might need this." He handed the screw driver to Sarah Jane without looking. "Jack—surveillance, I want you outside."

"Oh, don't I feel useful," Jack muttered sarcastically, turning back towards Sarah Jane's car. "At least I get the robot dog to keep me company!" He called with false cheer.

"And what're you going to do?" Rose asked.

"It's about time I had a word with Mr. Finch," he said darkly and started towards the school.

'_I'm so going to get you later for sticking me with her,'_ Rose called to him mentally as she and Sarah Jane started for the Maths wing.

'_Be nice,'_ the Doctor responded without a hint of humor.

Rose snorted mentally. _'Tell her that.'_

* * *

The two women hurried to the Maths wing, going into a room before any students got there. Rose stood at the door, shooing away any students who tried to come in while Sarah Jane worked the screwdriver on a computer.

Once the late bell rang, Rose locked the door and went over to Sarah Jane. "It's not working," Sarah Jane said, frustrated, glaring at the screwdriver.

"Here, let me try," Rose said, trying to keep her impatience out of her voice. She took the screwdriver from Sarah Jane, fiddled with the settings, then crawled under the desk to work on the wires down there.

"Used to work the first time in my day," Sarah Jane grumbled, the sight of her blocked by the desk Rose was under.

Rose bit back a retort, trying to stay polite. "He's probably gotten a new one since then. He has a new one when I meet him."

"You said that in the future tense, as if it hasn't happened yet."

Rose winced, and kept working on the computer. "It hasn't happened to him yet. It has to me. It's…complicated." She shifted out from under the desk. "It's deadlocked, the sonic won't work on it," she sighed, plopping down into a chair.

"Everything about you is complicated so far as I can tell," Sarah Jane grumbled, sitting across from Rose. There was quiet for a minute as Rose tried to hack into the computer the normal way.

"Just…" Sarah Jane started, then hesitated. "Just be careful. With the Doctor, I mean. Don't get too attached."

Rose blinked, and turned to look at her, a bit surprised by the sudden change in demeanor.

"The Doctor…he's not very good at staying still. When he left me, he…well, there was no warning, no goodbye, and he didn't even drop me off in the right place." Sarah Jane fidgeted for a moment. "I don't want to see anyone else get hurt the way I did."

Rose smiled sardonically. "I've already lost him once; no goodbye, nothing. I'm going to lose him again, and I doubt there'll be much of a goodbye then, either." She turned back to the computer, trying to change the screen from the school logo unsuccessfully. "I knew that coming in."

"Oh."

Silence reigned between them again for a few moments before Rose gave up with a frustrated sigh, and turned to Sarah Jane. She eyed the woman critically for a few moments. "What does love feel like," she asked bluntly.

"Excuse me?" The other woman asked, taken off guard.

"Love. I've got the full range of human emotions and I still can't figure some of them out. Love being the primary one I don't understand. What does it feel like?"

"Why've you got human emotions if you're not a human?" Sarah Jane asked, obviously stalling.

Rose made a face. "I technically…stole this body." Sarah Jane looked outraged, and Rose held up a placating hand. "I know, I know; but in my defense, I was young and stupid and half mad at the time."

"…how young?"

"About…Five and a half, maybe six? It doesn't matter. Point is, one hundred years later and I'm still trying to understand the intricacies of human emotions and I'm asking for help."

"I take it that doesn't happen very often," Sarah Jane smiled slightly.

"No, it doesn't," Rose agreed, returning the smile. "Please help me?"

"No."

"No?" Rose was confused; she'd thought she and Sarah Jane had been making progress here.

"No. It's nothing against you, dear, I promise. But all humans come into this world not understanding their own emotions; it's something they, and you, have to figure out on their own."

Rose groaned. "I've been _trying_ but I'm not good at this emotions nonsense. Give me a computer any day!" She paused, and looked at the computer she'd been working on thoughtfully. "Except this one." She and Sarah Jane both laughed.

"How's it going?" The Doctor asked, walking into the room with his serious face on.

"Well, the computer's deadlocked, so the Sonic's useless," Rose explained, tossing it to him. "And hacking the normal way is going just about as well. So, basically, we're stuck and it's your turn."

* * *

Mr. Finch made an announcement over the loud speaker, but none of them were paying attention. The Doctor ripped some wires out of the back of the computer, then pulled the plastic away so he could look at the circuit bord, trying to make it work with the sonic.

"It's not working!" He complained angrily.

"Told you," Rose shrugged, then went to the door to shoo away another group of students.

"There's gotta be something inside here. What're they teaching those kids?" The Doctor muttered, still going at it.

"You wanted the program, there it is," Sarah Jane exclaimed as all the computers around them sprung to life as one. All the screens showed the same thing; a bunch of strange spinning green cubes with strange markings on them.

"Some sort of code…" The Doctor mumbled, putting on his glasses and moving closer to the large screen at the front of the room.

"It can't be…" Rose muttered, her eyes widening. Sarah Jane and the Doctor stared at her. "The Skasis Paradigm!" She exclaimed, motioning at the screen. "They're trying to crack the Skasis Paradigm!" The Doctor's eyes widened and he whirled to look at the screen again.

"No…no, they can't…" he muttered frantically.

"The Skasis what?" Sarah Jane asked, looking between the two of them.

"The... God-maker," he explained, eyes glued to the code slowly being unraveled before them. "The universal theory. Crack that equation and you've got control of the building blocks of the universe. Time and space and matter, yours to control."

"They're using the kids as a super computer!" Rose realized.

"And their learning power is being accelerated by the oil!" The Doctor agreed, pacing now. "That oil from the kitchens, it works as a—as a... conducting agent. Makes the kids cleverer."

"That's why the chips tasted so weird!" Rose muttered.

"But why use the children?" Sarah Jane asked. "Couldn't they just use adults?"

The Doctor shook his head and kept pacing. "No, it's gotta be children. The God-maker needs imagination to crack it. They're not just using the children's brains to break the code... they're using their souls."

"Let the lesson begin," a dark voice said from behind them. They all turned around to see Mr. Finch walking into the room. "Think of it, Doctor—with the Paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the universe and improve it." He sounded so excited by the possibility, like he was offering a gift to the world.

"Oh yeah?" The Doctor scoffed, glaring darkly at the Krillitane. "The whole of creation with the face of Mr. Finch. Call me old fashioned, but I like things as they are."

"You act like such a radical, and yet all you want to do is preserve the old order," Mr. Finch shook his head, almost as if in disappointment. "Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good."

"What, by someone like you?" Rose snapped, glaring at him.

Mr. Finch barely spared her a glance, obviously thinking her a simple dinner lady; oh, she was _so_ going to kill the Doctor for sticking her with that job. "No. Someone like him," he nodded at the Doctor. "The Paradigm gives us power, but you could give us wisdom. Become a God," Finch offered, his voice passionate to the point of insanity. "At my side. Imagine what you could do—think of the civilizations you could save. Perganon, Assinta... your own people, Doctor. Standing tall. The Time Lords... reborn."

Rose glanced uneasily at the Doctor; the Time Lords were a sensitive subject for him even in his future—the wound was so much fresher now. The Doctor's silence was starting to worry her. He was just standing there, staring at Finch, as if he were actually considering it.

"Doctor, don't listen to him," Sarah Jane implored, as uneasy as Rose by the Doctor's silence.

Finch turned to face the two of them, a mad gleam in his eyes. "And you could be with him throughout eternity. Young... fresh... never wither, never age... never die." The man sounded like a prophet, so enthralled with his vision for the world. "Their lives are so fleeting. So many goodbyes. How lonely you must be, Doctor," he murmured, turning to face the Doctor again. "Join us."

"I could save everyone…" the Doctor murmured, a faraway look in his eye.

"Yes," whispered Finch, excited.

"I could stop the war…" the Doctor continued, staring at the code now.

"No," Sarah Jane protested desperately, moving directly into the Doctor's field of vision. "The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss—they define us as much as happiness or love." She searched the Doctor's eyes desperately, trying to make him understand. "Whether it's a world, or a relationship... everything has its time. And everything ends."

The Doctor hesitated, looking torn.

"She's right, Doctor," Rose whispered, calling his eyes to her. "Sometimes we just have to let the past be and learn to live with what the universe gives us." She smiled slightly. "And sometimes we're the better for it."

He stared at her for a moment, then at Sarah Jane. He closed his eyes for a moment, and Rose could have sworn she saw a tear. Then he lifted a chair and hurled it through the large screen, smashing it. "Out!" He ordered, running for the door.

Rose grabbed his hand as they ran, giving it a quick squeeze before letting him go again. Behind them, they heard the screech that signaled the Krillitane were no longer wearing their human disguises.

They rushed down the stairs and nearly ran into Jack and a boy Rose was pretty sure was named Kenny. "What the hell is going on?" Jack demanded. Three Krillitanes came over the railing of the stairs, groping their way towards them. "Well that answers that…" Jack muttered as they all turned and started running again.

They ended up in the lunch room, where—as per their luck—all of the doors were locked except for the one they came in; and of course, there were giant homicidal bats coming through that door, so there went that exit. Mr. Finch, still disguised as a human came in behind them, grinning murderously.

"Are those my teachers?" Kenny asked with a panic filled voice, his eyes wide.

"Yeah, sorry," the Doctor muttered.

"Leave the Doctor alive," Finch ordered. "As for the rest…you can feast."

'_Well that's just rude,'_ Rose thought to herself, duking as a Krillitane swooped over her head. The Doctor managed to beat one off with a chair, but it didn't look like they were going to last long.

A beam of red light shot out of nowhere, striking one of the Krillitane in the chest, and dropping it lifelessly to the ground. K-9 rolled out from under a table and over to the group as Finch roared in fury.

"K-9!" Sarah Jane exclaimed.

"Suggest you engage running mode, Mistress," the dog responded.

"Come on!" The Doctor yelled, running for the open door that was no longer blocked, thanks to the all the confusion. Rose ran after him, tugging Kenny along by the hand. She could hear K-9 still firing behind them.

"Hold them back K-9!" The Doctor shouted as they ran.

"Affirmative, Master!" Came K-9's robotic voice. "Engaging maximum defensive mode!"

The Doctor ushered them a door into another room, locking the door with the sonic once they were all inside, and promptly began to pace. "There has to be a way to stop them…" he muttered.

Rose checked over Kenny to make sure he was alright while the Doctor muttered and paced.

"It's the oil!" He exclaimed suddenly, stopping his pacing. "Krillitane life forms can't handle the oil! That's it! They've changed the physiology so often, even their own oil is toxic to them. How much was there in the kitchens?" He asked, turning to Rose.

She looked away from Kenny, and grinned. "Barrels of it."

The Krillitane started pounding on the door, making them all jump. Their claws started making holes, and it was apparent the door was not going to be a barrio for much longer.

"Right, we need to get to the kitchens. Jack, get the children unplugged and out of the school," he ordered. "Now bats, bats, how do we fight bats?"

Kenny rolled his eyes and rammed his elbow into the fire alarm. They could hear the screeches of pain outside the door, as the pounding and clawing stopped. "You were always my favorite," Rose informed Kenny seriously.

They all took off running down the hall, Jack breaking off from them to get the kids out. The alarm went off abruptly, and Rose winced as their one defense disappeared.

K-9 joined them as they ran towards the kitchens, and Rose marveled over the fact that the little robot was still alive. The Doctor pulled out his sonic as soon as they reached the kitchen, pointing it at one of the barrels of Krillitane oil. He groaned in frustration when the barrels refused to open. "They've been deadlock sealed! Finch must've done that—I can't open them."

"The vats would not withstand a direct blast from my laser, but my batteries are failing," K-9 informed them.

"Right, everyone out the back door. K-9, stay with me," the Doctor ordered.

Rose pulled Kenny out the door, Sarah Jane hurrying along behind them after throwing one last look at the Doctor. They waited outside the door, Rose gnawing on her lip with impatience (it was _not_ worry). The Doctor emerged a few minutes later.

"Where's K-9?" Sarah Jane demanded immediately.

"We need to run," was the Doctor's only response. He grabbed her by the hand and dragged her away, Sarah Jane still demanding the return of her dog. Rose and Kenny ran slightly behind them, Rose frowning sadly over the fate of the robotic dog; he'd kind of grown on her.

They'd only just gotten to where the evacuated children were grouping when the school exploded behind them. Predictably, this sent the children into loud cheers of excitement. Rose spotted Jack, and grinned at him, throwing her arms around his neck when he came over.

"Was that the plan all along? Blow up the school?" Jack asked sarcastically.

Rose laughed. "It's the Doctor; he came up with this plan three minutes ago."

* * *

They dropped Sarah Jane off, but came back a few days later at Rose's instance. The Doctor led a wide-eyed Sarah Jane in and Rose smiled from off to the side.

"You've redecorated!" Sarah Jane exclaimed.

"Yeah, do you like it?" The Doctor asked.

"Oh, I—I do. Yeah. I preferred it the way it was, but uh…it'll do!"

"I love it," Rose commented, walking over to join them. The TARDIS hummed happily in her mind; Red always did love a compliment.

"We've got to be off soon, but you can come with us," the Doctor offered, smiling hopefully.

Sarah Jane glanced at Rose, who grinned. "No…" she murmured sadly after a moment. "I can't do this anymore." Rose and the Doctor's faces fell in disappointment. "Besides, I've got a much bigger adventure ahead!" Sarah Jane exclaimed, grinning now. "Time I stopped waiting for you and found a life of my own."

"Good for you," Rose said sincerely.

Sarah Jane smiled. "Well, I better be off. Walk me out?" She asked, looking pointedly at Rose. Rose blinked but nodded, walking with her over to the door.

"Right, I know what I said before, but I figure you probably need all the help you can get, traveling around with that dolt," she nodded in the Doctor's direction. Rose stared at her blankly. "About love?" Sarah Jane clarified.

"Oh! Right, right!" Rose chewed on her lip thoughtfully. "My way is probably faster. I'm telepathic, like the Doctor, just not touch specific. If, if you could just remember the feeling? Call it to the front of your mind, I can look at it. Is that okay?"

Sarah Jane looked a bit apprehensive, but nodded, and closed her eyes. Rose waited a moment, then tentatively stretched her awareness into the forefront of Sarah Jane's mind. The feeling made her gasp, and she frowned as she tried to understand every aspect of it.

The more she looked, the more she realized she recognized it. She had similar feelings every time she looked at the Doctor. She pulled out of Sarah Jane's mind, her face contemplative. "I've felt something…similar. Not exactly the same, but…close."

"Love is meant to feel different for everyone," Sarah Jane shrugged, smiling a bit.

Rose was silent, staring past Sarah Jane and towards the Doctor, the wheels in her head spinning. "I think…" she whispered, and finally pulled her eyes to Sarah Jane's. "I think…I'm in love…" her voice was almost inaudible when she finished, and her eyes were wide with panic. "What do I do?"

Sarah Jane smiled at her in a motherly way. "You'll figure it out." She gave Rose a quick hug, and walked out the door. Rose stood there for a moment, in shock, then hurried over to the console. She pulled down the screen that showed the outside, and set the scanners to stay on that moment even after they'd left. She watched Sarah Jane intensely, ignoring the sound of the TARDIS motors declaring they were leaving.

"K-9!" the Sarah Jane on the monitor exclaimed, and the little robot dog Rose had worked for two days straight to fix rolled on screen. Rose grinned at the sight, and felt the Doctor walk up behind her.

"So that's what you've been up to," he murmured next to her ear.

Rose bit her lip and nodded.

"Good job," the Doctor said, and she could hear the grin in his voice.

He walked away and Rose repressed a shiver. What the hell did she do now?

* * *

**So the whole "Let's make the chapters shorter!" thing didn't exactly work out. Woops. **

**A lot of you were excited for Sarah Jane this chapter, and I'm sorry if I made her out to be petty and awful. It was hard working with the original script and a different Rose. This whole chapter was difficult, and I rewrote a lot of sections. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Let me know what you think?**

**I'm really excited for next chapter! Mostly just the ending; I've had it worked out for days! **

**Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed!**

**Until next time!**


	16. Chapter 16

"Oh, now _this_, this is cool!" Jack exclaimed as he stepped off of the TARDIS. "I've always wanted to see a real spaceship?"

"Does the Chula warship you commandeered in World War II not count as a 'real spaceship?'" Rose asked with a smirk, looking around the abandoned ship with interest.

"And the TARDIS!" The Doctor protested, glaring at Jack. "The TARDIS is a spaceship!"

"Details," Jack waved them off, exploring the control room of the ship with interest.

"So what year are we, then?" Rose asked, looking at the Doctor expectantly.

"Fifty-first century. Diagmar Cluster," he returned absently as he examined the control panel.

"Hold on," Jack said suddenly, turning to glare at the Doctor. "You finally offer to take me on a trip again and you take me to my _home_ century? What kind of person does that! I want a refund!"

The Doctor sent him an odd look. "I don't charge."

"That's not the point!"

Rose rolled her eyes and wandered away from the bickering pair. She wandered over to the control panels, looking at the screens and tossing random bits of wires out of her way. She frowned in confusion when one screen in particular caught her eye

"Doctor, Jack, shut up for a minute and come here," she called to the others. She pointed at the screen that had caught her attention when they came over. "All the warp engines are going at full capacity, but we're not moving. So where's all the power going?"

The Doctor nudged her out of the way to get a closer look, slipping on his specs as he did so. "That's enough power to blow a hole in the universe…" he murmured.

"There's no crew, either," Jack commented, messing with another screen that showed the three of them as the only life signs on the ship. "And I'm pretty sure I smell a Sunday roast cooking!" He added after a moment, grinning at the other two.

Rose rolled her eyes but smiled good naturedly. The puzzle of the ship distracted her from a return comment, however, and she continued to search the system, looking for some sort of explanation. No crew, an abnormally large amount of power…and Jack was right, something _was_ cooking somewhere…what was going on here?

She pressed a button, and there was the sound of a door opening behind her. The three of them turned around and were surprised to find a door had opened leading into another room. And in that room, against one wall, there was what appeared to be the recreation of an 18th century French room—and the room of an aristocrat, too, if the ornate fireplace was anything to go off of.

But perhaps the oddest thing—and given that they were in an abandoned spaceship with an extremely large amount of power running through it, that was saying something—was that the fireplace was lit.

"Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship," the Doctor commented cheerfully, moving forward to inspect the fireplace eagerly. "Eighteenth century! French! Nice mantel." He pointed the sonic screwdriver at it, flipping through the settings.

"Not a hologram them," Rose commented, looking on over his shoulder. She moved away in inspect the rest of the room, while the Doctor continued looking at the fireplace. Rose didn't like the thing; it gave her the creeps.

"Not even a reproduction, this actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace. Double-sided, there's another room through there," the Doctor said after a moment, in some surprise. "Hello!"

The sudden greeting made Rose turn around curiously. The Doctor was crouching down in front of the fireplace now, peering through intently. Rose could hear another voice now, presumably coming from the other side of the fireplace. Curiously, she walked over closer.

"What's your name?" The Doctor asked the person on the other side of the fireplace.

"Reinette," Rose could hear now as she drew closer.

"Reinette, that's a lovely name. Can you tell me where you are at the moment, Reinette?" The Doctor encouraged.

"In my bedroom," came Reinette's—a child, by the sounds of it—voice from the other side. Rose almost snorted in amusement; she liked this kid.

"And where's your bedroom? Where do you live Reinette?" The Doctor asked.

"Paris, of course!"

"Paris, right," the Doctor murmured thoughtfully.

"Monsieur, what are you doing in my fireplace?" Such an odd question, and yet asked so calmly—only a child was capable of doing that. Rose wanted to look to the other side of the fireplace and see this Reinette for herself, but they were already lucky that the girl was taking the sudden appearance of a man in her fireplace so well, she didn't want to push her luck.

"Oh, it's just a routine... fire check," the Doctor said awkwardly. "Can you tell me what year it is?"

"Of course I can!" Reinette said proudly. "Seventeen hundred and twenty-seven."

"Right, lovely! One of my favourites... August is rubbish though. Stay indoors." Rose raised an eyebrow at that one. So far as she knew, August in 1727 was a pretty okay time, as far as Earth history went… "Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire. Night night!" The Doctor stood up at that, looking thoughtful.

"So. 51st century with a time window to the 18th century. Gotta say, Doc, this trip just got a lot more interesting!" Jack grinned. The Doctor mumbled to himself and wandered to the other side of the room, shedding his coat as he went. "Gotta say," Jack continued, looping an arm of Rose's shoulder. "I really missed having the TARDIS translate for me. Especially French. Was always terrible at French."

Rose was watching the Doctor though, frowning. He was walking back to the fireplace now, and was fiddling with the side of it. She figured out what he was doing only a moment too late. "Doctor, don't you-!" But the portion of the wall was already spinning around, like some clichéd horror movie, taking the Doctor with it.

"Gotcha!" The Doctor crowed excitedly, disappearing from view and into, presumably, 18th century France.

Rose sighed. "And he complains about _me_ wandering off. He just took a fireplace back thirty-three centuries!" She muttered, shaking her head.

"Gotta admit though, he has style," Jack commented with a shrug.

Rose glared. "Don't tell _him_ that, you'll only encourage him," she grumbled. She walked towards the fireplace, intending to look through it and see if she could see the Doctor—and then give him a good telling off about the dangers of using spacio-temporal hyperlinks as a mode of transportation.

Before she could get too close, however, the fireplace started to spin again, and Rose jumped back a bit. Of course, the fireplace didn't bring back just the Doctor; no, that would be all too easy. Instead, along with the Doctor, there was also some sort of android dressed in period clothing. It had a long blade instead of an arm, and that blade was currently lodged in the mantel of the fireplace. Rose had terrible suspicions about how it got there.

As the fireplace finished turning, the Doctor leapt off and towards the opposite wall, grabbing a gun-like fire extinguisher, and rushing back to the struggling droid

"Meet the neighbors, did you?" Rose asked dryly as the Doctor drenched the droid in ice from the fire extinguisher. The droid slowly but surely froze over and stopped moving. The Doctor tossed the fire extinguisher to Rose once he was done, and she tossed it to Jack. "So, care to explain why a period-dressed android was in pre-revolutionary France?"

"It seemed to be after Reinette," the Doctor said absently, reaching over to the droid to pull off its elaborate white wig, revealing a clear, head shaped mechanism filled with clockwork gears. "Oh, you are beautiful!" The Doctor exclaimed.

"Must you compliment everything that tries to kill you?" Rose sighed.

"No really, it is, it's gorgeous!" The Doctor exclaimed giddily, glancing at Rose for only a moment before returning to the droid, gesturing and pointing widely. Jack and Rose exchanged a look, both rolling their eyes. "Look at that! Space age clockwork, I love it! I've got chills! Listen, seriously," he was talking to the frozen droid now, "I mean this from the heart—and, by the way, count those—it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to disassemble you." He sobered then, pulling out his screwdriver as his face turned serious. "But that won't stop me."

Before the Doctor could do anything, however, the droid cracked off the ice and teleported away. "That's unfortunate," Rose murmured. "But that was short range teleport, yeah? It's got to be on the ship somewhere still."

The Doctor had been walking towards the fireplace, but paused at Rose's words, and pointed at her and Jack seriously. "Don't you go looking for it," he warned, then turned back towards the fireplace.

"Where are you going?" Jack asked warily.

"Back in a sec," the Doctor grinned, before jumping back on the fireplace and taking a spin into the 18th century.

Rose sighed. "I get the feeling he's going to be doing that a lot today." She glared at the fireplace for a moment before going over to the place on the wall where the Doctor had gotten the fire extinguisher, and grabbing the other. She grinned at Jack who held his own up. "Fancy a bit of hunting?"

"Sounds like a plan!" They grinned at each other before leaving the room to explore the nearby halls.

They wandered the halls, Jack doing a few James-Bond-style tumbles and rolls along the way for Rose's amusement. As she laughed, Rose noted that sound traveled very easily in the wide, empty corridors of the ship.

They'd been walking for a bit without seeing anything of interest when Jack's voice from somewhere behind her caught Rose's attention.

"Are you looking at me?"

Rose turned to face him, ready with a retort that, no matter what he thought, she did _not_ in fact, have eyes in the back of her head. She stopped short, though, when she saw a camera attached to a cable snaking down from the ceiling and, for all intents and purposes, looking at Jack.

The camera jerked closer to Jack's face, and jumped backwards. "Woah," he muttered, moving slowly closer to the camera. "Come look at this, Rosie," he called.

Rose came over cautiously, and peered up into the lens of the camera with Jack. She jerked back when she realized there was an eye, a human _eye_, behind the lens. "That's not right," she whispered, horrified.

She backed away from the eye-camera until her back hit the wall. A rhythmic thumping caught her attention, and pulled her eyes away from the camera—which was retreating back to its spot high on the wall, anyway.

Turning, Rose pressed her ear to the wall, listening to the thumping, and sliding down the wall until it got louder. Looking the wall over, she found a circular door in the wall, and pulled it open, ignoring the way it burned her hand.

"That's not…" Jack whispered, having crouched behind her to peer over her shoulder and into the hole in the wall.

"It is," Rose whispered, feeling faintly ill. "That's a human heart."

They stared at it for a moment, unable to look away, until Rose regained her senses, and slammed the door shut. "We…we need to tell the Doctor about this," she decided, standing back up and forcing a bit of strength into her voice. Something terrible had happened here, was happening here, and Rose intended to find out what. And who should be punished.

* * *

They hurried down the corridors, back towards the fireplace room, trying not to think about what they'd just seen.

"I'm the Doctor. And I just snogged Madame de Pompadour!" The Doctor's surprised, giddy voice, carried down the last few feet of hall and reached Rose's ears. She slowed her until then frantic pace as she processed those words.

The Doctor had…snogged…the Uncrowned Queen of France. Oddly, this set off several different directions of thought for her: Reinette, the little girl from the fireplace—that must have been Jeanne Poisson, known as Reinette to her friends. The fire place, while a time window, was obviously not intrinsically attached to the same rate of time progression as their own—unless the Doctor had just snogged a little girl, which seemed very unlikely for several different reasons. And the Doctor, whom she loved and whom she thought might have returned some of her feelings, had kissed another woman, and was obviously ecstatic about the experience.

As Rose returned to herself, she realized Jack was staring at her with pity, and that the Doctor was still talking. "Every time, every time, it's rule one—don't wander off! I tell them, I do, rule one!"

"That's wrong, actually," Rose heard herself whisper, her voice not traveling farther than Jack. "Rule one isn't don't wander off; it's the Doctor lies."

She turned on her heel and started off back the way they'd come, working very hard to shove her feelings to the far recesses of her brain, away from conscious thought and contemplation.

Jack hurried to keep up with her. "Rose, listen, I know what he said, but—"

"I don't want to talk about it Jack," Rose responded, cutting him off. Her voice was void of emotion. "It doesn't matter. I don't care." The last part was more to herself than to Jack.

Damn human body with its damn human hormones! She shouldn't be reacting like this; she shouldn't _care_. He was the Doctor and she was Rose. They were best friends and traveling companions, not lovers. He owed nothing to her in that regard, and was free to snog whomever he liked.

And she should _not_ be responding like some jilted love sick teenager! She was over a hundred years old, for gods' sake! It might pale in comparison to the Doctor's own nine hundred, but still, she was mature enough not to react like this.

She wondered vaguely if her heart had actually shattered, or if that was just an odd chemical reaction in her brain.

* * *

Eventually, they came across a large glass panel in the wall that looked into an obviously French room. They peered through, taking in the room.

"France again," Jack commented after a moment. "Always France."

"I think we're looking through a mirror," Rose murmured. She wondered if this was Reinette's room at Versailles.

The door opened in the room, and a man, the King of France, by the looks of it, came in with two servants. "Wow, is that—" Jack started.

"The King of France?" The Doctor asked from behind them, making Jack whirl around to look at him. Rose remained where she was, watching the other room. "Yes."

"What've you been up to?" Jack asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice and gaze.

"Oh, this and that," the Doctor shrugged, oblivious. "Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat... picked a fight with a clockwork man..." there was a neighing, and a horse walked into view. "Met a horse."

Rose turned from the mirror/window, and stepped over to the horse, rubbing its nose and murmuring in its ear.

"See these?" The Doctor was saying, gesturing, Rose assumed, to the mirror that looked into the King of France's bedroom. "They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history..." he paused for a moment. "Hers." Ah, Reinette must've entered the room. "Time windows... deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the fifty-first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth. _Why_?" The Doctor sounded frustrated, and Rose couldn't help but smirk; he'd always hated a puzzle he couldn't solve.

It was, after all, why he'd paid her so much attention when she'd started traveling with his ninth self.

The Doctor was still prattling on about Madame de Pompador when he suddenly stopped. Rose turned, curious, when she heard it, too: ticking. Like a clock only, yes, the clock on the mantel in the room through the mirror was broken. As they watched, a clockwork droid started attacking Reinette; the King had apparently already left the room.

The Doctor wasted no time in grabbing the fire extinguisher gun from Jack and the mirror around, off to save the damsel in distress again. Jack followed him through, and so did Rose, after a beat.

Rose and Jack hung back as the Doctor coated the droid—dressed this time as a female courtesan—in ice.

"What's it doing?" Jack asked, taking his extinguisher back as the Doctor tossed it to him. The Droid was twitching, fighting the ice.

"Switching back on. Melting the ice," the Doctor responded absently.

"And then?" Jack prompted.

"It kills everyone in this room," was the Doctor's annoyingly nonchalant response. The droid's arm shot out, narrowly avoiding the Doctor's neck, before it froze again. "Focuses the mind a bit, doesn't it?" He asked cheerfully, before addressing the droid. "Who are you? Identify yourself," he demanded. The droid remained unresponsive. "Order it to answer me," the Doctor sighed, turning to Reinette.

"Why should it listen to me?" The French woman asked, surprised.

"I don't know. It did when you were a child. Let's see if you've still got it," he grinned. Rose's stomach clenched.

"Answer his question," Reinette ordered uncertainly. "Answer any and all questions put to you."

The droid lowered its arm before responding. "I am repair droid seven."

"So what happened to the ship then? There was a lot of damage," the Doctor asked, watching the droid carefully.

"Ion storm, eighty-two percent systems failure."

"That ship hasn't moved in over a year. What's taken you so long?" The Doctor asked, stalking a little closer.

"We did not have the parts."

A horrible realization was starting to dawn on Rose.

"What's happened to the crew, where are they?" The Doctor demanded.

"We did not have the parts," the droid insisted.

"There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?"

"We did not have the parts."

"On the ship," Rose cut in, her eyes clenched shut, cutting off the Doctor before he could yell at the droid again. "On the ship…we saw a camera. It had an eye in it. And in one of the walls, there was a heart." She opened her eyes, finally facing the Doctor. "A still beating, human, heart."

"You didn't have the parts," the Doctor whispered, turning to face the droid again "So you used the crew. It was just what it was programmed to. Repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it could find. No one told it the crew weren't on the menu." He turned to Jack. "What did you say the flight deck smelt of?"

"Sunday roast," Jack muttered, glaring at the droid and fingering the trigger on his extinguisher.

The Doctor turned back to the droid, and Rose looked away. She was pleased—and felt awful for being pleased—to notice Reinette looked a bit ill.

"But what are you doing here?" The Doctor asked the droid, closer to it now. "You've opened up time windows, that takes colossal energy. Why come here, you could have gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to eighteenth century France? Why?"

"One more part is required," the droid responded. Its head jerked towards Reinette.

"Then why haven't you taken it?" The Doctor demanded.

"She is incomplete."

"What... so, that's the plan then?" The Doctor asked, obviously not impressed. Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking to see if she's 'done yet?'"

"Why her?" Rose asked suddenly. The others turned to look at her, but she kept her eyes trained on the droid. "You've got all of history to choose from, why specifically her?"

"We are the same," the droid answered in its flat voice.

"We are not the same, we are in no sense the same!" Reinette shouted angrily, taking a menacing step towards the droid.

"We are the same," the droid insisted.

"Get out of here!" Reinette yelled, advancing towards the droid. "Get out of here this instant!"

"Reinette, no!" The Doctor warned, but it was too late; the droid teleported out again.

"It's back on the ship. Rose, take Jack and Arthur, get after it. Follow it, don't approach it, just watch what it does." The Doctor ordered.

"Arthur?" Jack asked, confused.

"Good name for a horse!" The Doctor proclaimed.

"He prefers Susan," Rose sighed, stepping through the mirror again without looking back. Jack hurried after her.

"Rose, wait!" He called, grabbing her arm to stop her.

Rose glared up at him. "What. What do you want, Jack?" She snapped.

He stared at her for a moment. "I want to know if you're okay," he said finally.

"Of course I'm okay. I'm always okay. Why wouldn't I be okay?"

Jack didn't answer, only pulled her in for a hug. Rose sighed, and closed her eyes. Why couldn't he just pretend nothing was wrong? It was a lot more painless than continuously bringing up how wrong she'd been in her assumptions.

It was better this way, anyways; better she found out now, soon, so that she could get over whatever ridiculous feelings she'd harbored for the Doctor. The sooner she realized he didn't feel the same, the sooner she could let go and they could go back to just being mates.

Rose pulled away, opening her eyes in just enough time to see one of the droids step out of a door behind Jack.

"Jack, look out!" She yelled, but then the droid shot a gas in both their faces, and Rose's world went dark.

* * *

_Flying the TARDIS was a bit more difficult than she'd thought it would be, and she was fairly sure that the crash landing caught the attention of the others on the ship._

_If it didn't, they were even less intelligent than she thought._

_Hurriedly, and stumbling a few times, she made her way out of the ship, and into a room. _'1940's Germany, World War II,'_ Her brain supplied as she took in her surroundings. _

"_Who the hell are you?" A man yelled at her. _

_She observed him for a moment, before disregarding him as unimportant. Hitler and his doings were of no concern to her._

_The door to the TARDIS burst open and her would-be captors poured out. Hitler started yelling and the one with the bow-tie ordered the long nosed one—Rory, he was called—to put Hitler in the closet._

_Her eyes scanned the people before her, debating the best course of action given her limited knowledge of how to operate a biped body. _

"_Rose, Rose, please, come back to the TARDIS," Bow-tie pleaded, taking a step towards her._

_She cocked her head to the side, considering him. "Rose again. I've told you that's not my name." Her voice was calm as she spoke, and she finally came to the conclusion it was a voice she could deal with possessing. _

_Bow-tie faltered. "What should I call you then?"_

_She wandered the room as she considered, acutely aware that all eyes were watching her. She paused before the ginger for a moment, reaching out to touch her hair. The woman flinched ever so slightly, but remained still. She continued down the line to Rory. She considered him for a moment, before moving to the abomination. Her hands ghosted along his arms, his torso, his face. "You're almost as wrong as I am," she whispered, before moving away._

_She skipped bow-tie altogether, moving back towards the middle of the room, away from the group of people. She turned to face them, her arms behind her back. "Wolf. My sister calls me Wolf. I think it fits."_

_She pulled her arms out from behind her back, revealing a vortex manipulator on her wrist. The abomination gasped, and searched his own bare wrists in vain for the device she'd stolen._

"_How about Bad Wolf? I like that. Fair well. I will see you all again, I think." She hit the button on the vortex manipulator that would take her away from there just as the group surged forward to try and stop her._

* * *

Rose groaned as she came awake, shaking off the last of the dream. As if her day hadn't been going poorly enough.

There was a droid staring down at her, the blade of its hand fully extended. "Oh, and it just keeps getting better, doesn't it?" She groaned. She wiggled, trying to move away, but she'd been strapped down to a table.

"They want to use us for parts, Rose." She turned her head to see Jack. "I've always wondered what would happen to me if I was chopped up," he chuckled nervously. "Don't suppose you have a way out of this?"

"You are compatible," the droid informed Rose.

"I'd like it very much if you'd change your mind," Rose informed it calmly. "'Cause, you see, I have a way out, but it's rather draining and I'd rather avoid it if at all possible."

The droid did not seem to care, as it began to lower its blade towards Rose's throat.

"Just one thing," Rose muttered, her eyes glowing gold. "Why can't just one thing go my way today?"

"I could've danced all night, I could've dance all night…" drunken singing from down the hall reached their ears, pulling the droid up short.

Rose sighed and her eyes regained their usual brown color. "Close enough," she muttered.

The Doctor stumbled into the room, a glass in one hand, his tie tied around his head. "Have you met the French?" He slurred, not talking to anyone in particular. "My…_god_ they know how to party!"

Rose sighed and closed her eyes. "Wake me when it's over," she muttered.

"Oh ho ho ho ho, brilliant. It's you! You're my favourite, you are, you are the best! Do you know why? 'Cause you're so _thick_." Rose hoped very much that he was talking to one of the droids and not to her. "You're Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania." He paused. Definitely one of the droids, then. "And so's your dad."

"Do you know what they were scanning Reinette's brain for?" His voice is closer to her now, it seemed he was putting on a show. "Her milometer. They wanna know how old she is. Know why? 'Cause this ship is thirty-seven years old. And they think that when Reinette is thirty-seven, when she's 'complete', then her brain will be compatible. So, that's what you're missing, isn't it? Hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain. And for some reason—God knows what—only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do."

"The brain is compatible," one of the droids responded.

"Compatible?" The Doctor asked, his voice further away from her now. "If you believe that, you probably believe this is a glass of wine."

There were a few strange noises, but Rose didn't bother to open her eyes. The Doctor had a gob on him, he would explain whatever he'd done within the next thirty seconds or so.

"Multigrain anti-oil. If it moves, it doesn't." The Doctor's voice was sober all of a sudden, a fact Rose was grateful for. "Right you two, that's enough lying about!" He exclaimed cheerfully. Rose heard the sonic and then felt her bonds go away. She sighed and sat up, opening her eyes. "Time to get the rest of the ship turned off."

Rose rubbed her stiff neck as she watched the Doctor hurry over to a control board, pulling his tie back down around his neck as he went.

"Okay, all the time windows are controlled from here. I need to close them all down." He started digging through his pockets. "Zeus plugs. Where are my Zeus plugs? I had them a minute ago, I was using them as castanets…" he muttered to himself. He started fiddling with the computer after a moment, a frown creasing his forehead. "The windows aren't closing. Why won't they close?"

There was a pinging noise that, in Rose's opinion, was decidedly ominous. "Do I even want to know what that was?"

"I don't know…" the Doctor muttered. "Incoming message?" He suggested.

"From who?" Jack asked.

"Report from the field... one of them must still be out there with Reinette! That's why I can't close the windows, there's an override!" The Doctor exclaimed.

The clockwork droid suddenly whirled to life, managing to tip itself so that the 'wine' the Doctor had poured in its ear spilled out and onto the floor, giving it the freedom of movement again.

"…Well, that was a bit clever," the Doctor commented.

More droids filled the room, and the ticking noise they produced bordered on deafening.

"Right…many things about this are not good…" the Doctor muttered, eyes darting from droid to droid. Rose backed towards the Doctor and Jack warily, eyes locked on the approaching droids. The pinging noise came again. "Message from your little friends?" The Doctor asked, stalling. "Anything interesting?"

"She is complete. It begins." A droid announced, before all of them teleported away.

"One of them must've found the right time window, and now it's time to send in the troops," the Doctor said. Rose could almost hear the gears in his brain turning as he came up with a plan. "Right, we need to warn her," the Doctor announced. "Rose," he turned to face her. "I need you to go talk to her, we'll find a window as close as we can, while Jack and I look for the window that the droids used."

Rose considered protesting, but realized now really wasn't the time, and so only nodded mutely. "You two go ahead, I'll find a window and warn her." The Doctor nodded and ran off. Jack hesitated staring at her. Rose nodded, and he left to. She closed her eyes for a moment, then took off down the halls, passing windows that were too early until she found one that—if her knowledge of time lines was correct, and they nearly always were—was only five years away from Reinette's thirty-seventh birthday. Close enough.

Rose slipped through the window, a tapestry, and hurried through the palace to Reinette's room. She stepped in carefully, trying not to scare the woman at the window. Reinette turned, and gasped when she saw Rose. "Please don't scream," Rose implored, stepping further into the room. "We haven't really got the time. I'm a friend of the Doctor's," she added.

Reinette still looked wary, but Rose was pretty sure she wouldn't call for help, at least. Moving further into the room, Rose sat down on a bench and motioned Reinette over. The French woman moved closer, but did not sit. "I've come to warn you that they'll be here in five years," Rose said without preamble.

"Five years?" Reinette asked.

"Some time after your thirty-seventh birthday. I'm sorry I can't give you an exact date, even we aren't sure," Rose apologized sincerely. The poor woman had enough to worry about in her life without having clockwork assassins coming for her on an unknown date in the future. "They're coming, it will happen." She paused for a moment. "I suppose, in a way, for us, it's already happening."

"Explain?" Reinette asked, frowning.

Rose shook her head. "There isn't time."

"There's five years," Reinette insisted, raising an eyebrow.

"For you, I haven't got five minutes."

Reinette finally sat down next to her, and took her hand. "Then be concise, and I will listen."

Rose sighed, and tried to figure out how to put it in terms that a woman from pre-revolutionary France would understand. "There's…a ship. In space. And on this ship are windows that lead to different times in your life."

"There is a vessel in your world... where the days of my life are pressed together like the chapters of a book so that he may step from one to the other without increase of age... while I, weary traveller... must always take the slower path?" Reinette asked, trying to clarify.

Rose smiled, a bit sadly. "I can see why he likes you."

"So, in five years, these creatures will return. What can be done?"

"Keep them talking," Rose instructed. "They're programmed to respond to you. You won't be able to stop them, but you should be able to delay them for a bit."

"Until?"

"Until the Doctor gets there."

"He's coming, then?" Reinette asked with a small smile.

"He promises," Rose assured her, squeezing the hand she was still holding a bit.

"But he cannot…make his promises in person?" Reinette asked, almost hesitantly.

"He'll be there when you need him. That's the way it needs to be," Rose responded firmly.

"It's the way it's always been," Reinette sighed. "The monsters and the Doctor. It seems you cannot have one without the other."

Rose allowed herself a smile there. "I know what you mean." She paused for a moment, debating. "The thing is... you weren't supposed to have either. Those creatures are messing with history. None of this was ever supposed to happen to you."

Reinette glared at her, and pulled her hand away. "Supposed to happen? What does that mean? It happened, child. And I would not have it any other way. One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel." She stood and turned to face the fireplace.

Rose sighed. "Child," she murmured, almost smirking. "I've never been called that." Rose stood, and moved to leave.

"Be ready for them, Reinette. They will come. But the Doctor will save you." Rose hurried back down the corridor and through the tapestry just as Jack was coming through to get her.

"We found it!" He told her breathlessly, then grabbed her hand and pulled her along down the corridors. As they drew closer, Rose could hear screams. "The Doctor fixed an audio link," Jack called back to her.

They came into the room and Rose saw a large ornate mirror that looked into an equally ornate ballroom, which was filled with droids and panicking courtesans.

The Doctor had his screwdriver out, working frantically on the mirror. He looked up as they came in. "They knew I was coming," he explained, going back to his work. "They blocked it off.

Rose hurried over to help him, working on the mirror while he hurried to a computer than controlled it. Rose worked frantically, looking up every so often at the time window to see how much longer they had. To see if Reinette was still alive.

"It's no use, if we had a few days, maybe," Rose said when she saw Reinette being led into the ballroom by the droids.

"Can't you just take the TARDIS there?" Jack asked.

"We're part of events now, we can't," the Doctor snapped back impatiently.

"There's got to be something!" Jack snapped right back.

"No, smash the glass, smash the time window, they'd be no way back."

Even as he said it, Rose knew how this would all end. The Doctor looked around for a moment, before his face became set. He ran out of the room, and Rose sat down at a chair in front of one of the computer monitors.

"What's he doing?" Jack asked, coming over to her, but still staring through the mirror.

"What he has to," Rose murmured, watching the mirror as well.

A few moments later, and they could hear the whiny of a horse, and the sounds of its hooves as it galloped. A second later, and the Doctor appeared riding on Arthur (or Susan, depending on who you asked). He galloped through the room, and led the horse to leap through the mirror, shattering it as he went, before completely disappearing from sight.

"Did he…" Jack started. "He knew there was no way back. He knew we didn't know the exact date of that window. Does he have _any _idea how long it's going to take us to find him?" Jack was yelling by the end.

Rose stood up, and started for the TARDIS. "He had to. If Reinette had died that night, history would have changed, and we can't have that." Jack followed her as she led the way back to the TARDIS. "Besides," she added, pausing with one hand on the door to the blue box. "He is rather fond of her."

She pulled the door open and stepped inside.

"Rose—" Jack started.

"I'm going to bed. I haven't slept in a while and that drug induced nap just isn't cutting it." Rose interrupted, facing down the hall that led to her room. "We'll start looking for him tomorrow. Besides…" she paused. "I want to see if he had a plan B he didn't tell us about." She headed down the hall and towards her bedroom, intending to sleep for a long time.

* * *

"Rose!" The Doctor yelled as the fireplace spun around and deposited him back on the spaceship. The room was empty, save for some computers. "Rose?" The Doctor called, hurrying towards where he'd parked the TARDIS. He hoped they hadn't already left to go find him; that would make things rather difficult.

He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the TARDIS right where he left it, and hurried inside. "Rose? I'm ba—uff!" He'd barely made it two steps into the TARDIS before something decidedly solid collided with his face, and sent him reeling back into the door. He rubbed his cheek, and glared at his assailant—Jack Harkness. "What was that for?" He snapped.

"No. You don't get to play that game with me," the Captain growled, glaring right back at the Doctor. "You may play oblivious with her, and maybe you pretend to yourself, but there's no way you aren't, at some level, aware."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" The Doctor snapped, pushing off the door and past Jack.

"You hurt her, Doctor!" Jack called after him, stopping the Doctor in his tracks. "She won't admit it, probably never will, but you hurt her. And if you don't fix it, I don't think she'll recover. So you better do your damndest to fix it."

"I don't know what you're talking about," the Doctor said again, quietly now.

"Well you better figure it out. And you can take me home once she wakes up, too. I don't want to be a part of this anymore." The Captain stalked out of the room after that, and the Doctor could hear a distant door slamming closed.

* * *

**This is terribly late, I know, I'm sorry. I got a job and now I'm tired all the time. Plus, I wanted to get this chapter right, and doing that while half asleep was not going well.**

**Let me know what you think? Rose's response to rejection is to just sort of shut down emotionally, because she doesn't want to feel. At least, that was what I was going for up there. **

**To everyone who followed, favortied, and reviewed, thanks so much! You make my day, every time!**

**I'm answering a few questions next chapter, so yay for that!**

**Until next time!**


	17. Chapter 17

It wasn't his fault. He wasn't entirely sure what was happening, or, indeed, what caused it, but it was _not_ his fault.

The Doctor had been in the console room, minding his own business and ignoring Jack (who had spent the last half hour glaring at him) and waiting for Rose to get up (because he needed to prove to Jack that he hadn't hurt Rose, hadn't done any of the things Jack had accused him of). Rose didn't sleep very often, and usually not very long when she did, but it had been almost twelve hours now since they left the spaceship that had contained the portals to the time line of one Jeanne Poisson, and the Doctor was starting to get worried (what if Rose was sick? Could Rose even get sick? She certainly couldn't be trying to avoid him….).

Right, so minding his own business. Ignoring Jack. Waiting for Rose. Then a sudden _BOOM! _and everything went pear-shaped. The console had exploded, shooting sparks everywhere, and sending he and Jack both tumbling. The force of the blow had even been enough to knock the glare from Jack's face, which was saying something.

"What the hell is happening?" Jack had yelled somewhere from the other side of the flaming console.

"The vortex is gone!" The Doctor had shouted frantically, somehow managing to get to his knees. "That's impossible!" He tried to operate the console, despite the continuing sparks and occasional small fire. They were free falling through _nothing_ because the _vortex_, the constant ever present vortex, was just _gone_. Which was _impossible_.

And here he thought he'd seen everything.

"Brace yourself!" The Doctor had shouted after a moment, realizing what was about to happen. "We're going to crash!" No sooner had the words left his mouth that the free fall of the TARDIS came to a very sudden, very _violent_ stop.

The Doctor had been thrown against one of the coral struts, knocking all the air from his lungs; thank Rassilon for respiratory bypass. He groaned. "You alright?" He called, once he found his vocal chords again.

"Yeah…yeah, fine…" Jack groaned from somewhere on the other side of the console.

"Rose…" the Doctor muttered, eyes scanning the room as if he expected her to appear. But of course not, she'd been in her room… "Rose!" The Doctor yelped, launching himself to his feet and sprinting towards the corridor—

-Only to nearly run into the girl in question as she came barreling down the hall, eyes wild with fright. "_What did you do?!_" She shrieked, shoving past him and straight to the time rotor, which was, the Doctor noticed for the first time, completely dark. "_What did you do to her?!_" Rose shrieked again, frantically running her hands over the console, trying to fix it.

"She's dead…" the Doctor whispered, staring at the darkened rotor of his beloved ship. His ship which had been through everything with him, which had survived _everything_ that had been thrown his way, was _dead_.

And somehow it seemed Rose was taking it even worse than he was.

She was mumbling to herself frantically, her eyes slightly mad, and running her hands over the console. Every so often, he would catch the unfamiliar buzz of a telepathic conversation that he couldn't reach (annoying that was; it was like it was taking place on a radio frequency his brain didn't receive. Which was ridiculous because he was a _Time Lord_ and he should be able to access every frequency.)

The Doctor hadn't felt useless in a very long time, but as he stood there, watching Rose cry over the TARDIS, frantically trying to revive the old girl, he didn't know what to do. His ship was dead and his Rose was suffering.

And there was nothing he could do to fix it.

The world seemed to quiet as he stood there, staring blankly at Rose. He could see her mouth moving, could see Jack trying to pull her from the console, concern on his face, could see Rose punch Jack square in the face, but it was like watching a movie on mute: there was absolutely no sound and the Doctor felt strangely removed.

A hum, the quietest breeze of a thought, stirred in the recesses of his mind, a place long since left silent by the passing of his species. Occasionally he heard Rose, but it was different. This, this was…this was so close to the Time Lords and so different at the same time. It wasn't even an actual thought, just a presence, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. It was just enough to draw his eyes away from Rose and the console and down to a small, green light, just under the grating.

With a wordless cry, the Doctor threw himself to the ground, wrenching the grating out of the way and diving through the sea of wires to retrieve the tiny, _alive_ power cell.

"Is that…?"

He looked up to see Rose's face peering down at him in the gloom, the tiniest spark of hope in her eyes.

The Doctor grinned. "A power cell, barely attached to life, but _there_," he agreed. "Just needs a little power," he murmured, cupping the power cell carefully in his hands before blowing on it. The slightest bit of gold dust came out of his mouth and sank into the power cell. "Ten years of my life!" He said cheerfully, grinning at Rose, who sagged in relief as the cell glowed more brightly. "Worth every minute!"

Rose made a strange noise that seemed to be a mix between a laugh and a sob, and disappeared from his line of sight. Slipping the power cell into his pocket—like _hell_ was he letting the thing out of his sight—the Doctor climbed out from under the console, and found Rose apologizing profusely to Jack, who was already developing a rather colorful bruise just below his left eye.

"It's alright, Rosie," Jack said, brushing away her apologies. "I should have been prepared for that right hook of yours, anyway. I'm getting rusty."

Rose smiled at Jack a bit uncertainly before turning to the Doctor. "So how long until we can get out of…wherever we are?"

"W_ell_," the Doctor started, dragging out the vowel. He pulled the power cell from his pocket and watched as its glow went through a cycle of brightening and dimming for a moment. "It's in a recharging cycle now, should last, oh, about twenty-four hours?" He said at last, looking up as he moved to slip the cell back into his pocket.

Rose made another odd noise—he had no clue what this one was—and motioned towards the hand with the power cell. "Can I—can I keep that? Please?"

The Doctor considered asking her why, but the desperation on her face was so clear, and it called up the memory of her momentary insanity when the TARDIS had died, that he agreed without comment, handing the power cell to her. She cradled it in her hands for a moment, and he was pretty sure she murmured something to it, before slipping the small green object into her pocket, keeping a hand pressed against the little lump.

"So, where are we, anyway?" Jack asked, ending the Doctor's observation of one Rose Tyler.

"Nowhere," he answered with a shrug, trying to contain the shiver of revulsion. "We fell out of the vortex, through the void, into nothingness. We're in some sort of no-place... the silent realm... the lost dimension..." he trailed off, only barely containing the shiver this time. "We should be able to get out, though, once the cell charges. I think. Possibly."

"I think it might not be that bad," Rose called from the door. When had she moved over there? The Doctor and Jack hurried over to join her, and peered out into 21st century London. "I mean, it's still pretty bad, but not as bad as the silent realm," she added.

"Come on, London's not that bad," Jack joked, hopping out onto the dingy concrete. "And, hey! We can get chips!"

"Not our London, Jack," Rose murmured, stepping out of the TARDIS and staring up at the sky.

Jack frowned at her, then followed her gaze. "Oh," he murmured, staring at the zeppelins that filled the sky. "Well, then."

"Alternate universe," the Doctor supplied, stepping out with the others and looking around the city. Not too many differences, then. "We shouldn't be able to get here. The walls of reality of have been closed for centuries."

"Then how'd we get here?" Jack asked, eye brow raised.

"No clue!" The Doctor shrugged, frowning. It was being in this universe that had killed the TARDIS. She lived off of energy from the universe, but put her in a different universe, and she couldn't absorb the energy right; like diesel in a petrol tank.

"So what do we do for twenty-four hours in an alternate universe?" Jack asked, tearing his eyes away from the zeppelins.

"We sit in the TARDIS and tell camp stories," the Doctor said firmly. "Alternate universe, way too many possible paradoxes. I've no desire for a run in with the reapers today, thanks, so everyone back into the TARDIS."

But Rose was already walking away from him, her eyes glued on something behind him. Why did she always do that? Couldn't they all just do what he said for once? "Rose what are you doing? I just said—"

"That's my father."

The Doctor stopped short. On a list of possible responses, that one didn't even make the list. Logically, of course, he knew Rose had parents. Or, at least, that she was a product of something similar to the Galifreyan looms. But here she was, showing him a very human man on an ad for a health drink, saying he was her father.

"What?" Brilliant response, that. Summed the whole situation up.

"Well, not _my_ father. Not technically. The father of this body." Rose clarified, her eyes glued to the ad, her voice curiously distant.

Because that answered so many questions.

"I stole it, you know," she explained, almost as if she were talking about the weather. "The real Rose Tyler was in a car wreck with her parents. Pete and Jackie Tyler were killed instantly, but Rose Tyler was declared brain dead."

What was she saying? Oh, Rassilon, why was she telling him this?

"I found her purely by chance. I was looking through hospitals for a suitable body, and Rose's was the first that I found. So I stole her. Or, what was left of her. She was long gone by then. I changed her biology so that I could occupy her, so that I could keep some of the quirks of my original race in her human body. I didn't do very well at it, in all honesty," She admitted. Her eyes stayed on Peter Tyler, the father of the body she'd stolen and then slipped on like a garment. "But I was half mad at the time. Well, a little more than half," she chuckled humorlessly, pain creeping into her tone now. "Mad and angry and hurt…" she whispered.

She was quiet for a minute, and, for the first time in this body, the Doctor found himself speechless. Rose, his Rose, had stolen a body for her own benefit, changing it in a way that defied the laws of nature (and several planets, his own included) before installing herself in it and running about in it. It was despicable, it was disgusting, it was…

Nothing less than what he'd attempted to let the Gelth do back in Cardiff in the 1800's.

'_But look how that turned out,'_ a voice whispered in his mind. The Gelth had tried to take over the Earth, to convert every human into a living puppet. They would have destroyed humanity if he hadn't stopped them.

'_But Rose isn't like that, she's _saved_ people, not destroyed them!'_ Another part of him argued right back.

'_That you know of,'_ that traitorous first voice whispered.

"Of course, once I regained some sanity," Rose said, interrupting his thoughts, "I went back to Earth and tried to fix it. I couldn't give back Rose's body by then, of course, but she had only two living relatives. I made sure they each received a large sum of money. Not the same as having the ability to bury their family member, I know, but it was enough to get them out of the government housing they'd been stuck in. I still check in on them every so often…" she trailed off again, and turned to stare at the Doctor, looking away from the ad for the first time since she'd seen it. "So, Doctor?" She asked, voice flat. "Are you disgusted with me? Revolted? Ready to ship me off?"

The Doctor didn't answer. He couldn't.

Rose nodded, as if that answered everything. "Good. You should." She looked back at the ad. "I want to meet him," she said after another lengthy silence.

The Doctor latched onto that statement, if only because it was one he knew how to respond to. "Absolutely not," he declared, shaking his head. "Too many possibilities for things to go wrong. What if he realizes you're not _his_ Rose. What if _his _Rose is there? No way."

But Rose was already shaking her head and turning away. "There is no Rose Tyler in this universe. I checked."

She _checked?_ How in the name of the Eye of Harmony had she _checked?_ They'd been in this universe for _maybe_ twenty minutes, and for fifteen of those, she had been shrieking over the death of the TARDIS; the other five had been spent telling him all about her career as a body snatcher. So how the _bloody hell_ had she managed to find time in there to check and see if a parallel version of herself (or, at least, of the body she currently inhabited) _existed?_

His confusion must have shown on his face, because she shrugged at him, muttering "I have my ways," with something of a half-hearted smile.

This woman would never fail to surprise him.

"It's still dangerous," the Doctor finally managed to protest.

"So was sending a bomb to Downing Street. So was facing down the Daleks. So was fighting a werewolf. So was jumping through a time window with no plan for return,"—the Doctor winced at that one; apparently she was more hurt over that then he'd thought—"why should this be any different?"

Well, when she put it like that…

"…We're staying out of sight, blending in. We're going to be _careful_ this time, got it?" He wondered when it was exactly he started giving into her so easily. "And where's Jack, anyway?" He added, realizing the irritating feeling of wrongness that coincided with Jack's presence was gone.

"Oh, he wandered off about six minutes ago," Rose shrugged, turning and starting for London proper, pulling out her phone as she went.

Of course he did. Damn conman.

* * *

There were so many things wrong with this. They were in a parallel world, the TARDIS was semi-dead, Rose was walking around in a meat-suit, and now they were at said meat-suit's parallel parent's house.

And Rose was dressed as a maid and for some reason he couldn't stop staring at her legs and it was starting to make him uncomfortably hot.

He blamed the bow tie.

Right, focus. Luckily for them (or unluckily for him, take your pick) tonight was Jackie Tyler's birthday party. It gave them the opportunity to sneak in unnoticed so that Rose could see her not-parents. 'Course, she hadn't been too pleased when he got them in under the guise of servers, but no one ever noticed the servers, and he wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible.

And he meant it, this time.

"Right, according to Lucy," he started.

"Who's Lucy?" Rose interjected.

The Doctor blinked, then nodded at another server on the other side of the room. "Her, with the salmon pinwheels."

"Oh, that's Lucy, is it?" Rose asked, her voice oddly blank. That had been happening a lot, lately, he was noticing. Her voice wasn't as…lively, as it usually was. Most everything she said was in a flat monotone, save for her desperate shrieking when the TARDIS had died. What was happening?

"…Yeah, it is," he said finally, looking at her closely; she refused to make eye contact. "Anyway, she says that bloke over there is the President of Great Britain."

"President? That's odd…" Rose murmured, her eyes scanning the room.

The Doctor made to continue, but a voice rang out over the room, calling for quiet. Rose quickly moved through the crowd, the Doctor close behind, looking for the source of the voice. They found him at the base of the grand staircase, Peter Tyler, known as Pete to most. Rose's father. The Doctor observed him for a moment, tuning out his speech, before turning to look at Rose. He could see little of this man in his blonde companion, except, maybe the nose.

Except this wasn't Rose's body, he had to remind himself. She'd stolen it. Nothing about it was hers, and nothing about her resembled this man, because he was not her father.

He was giving himself a headache.

Pete stepped aside to allow his wife, Jackie Tyler, to take center stage, er, staircase. Now in her, the Doctor could see the relation to Rose's body. Blonde, middling in height, pale. They were clearly mother and daughter, and yet…

They weren't.

It was driving him mad, thinking constantly of Rose wearing some poor human's body. But Rose Tyler, the real Rose Tyler, had been dead when his Rose had taken over. Was there really any harm there?

He'd thought the same of the Gelth.

Jackie Tyler said only a few words before encouraging everyone to enjoy themselves.

"You can't stay," the Doctor murmured quietly to Rose, whose eyes were locked on Jackie Tyler. "Even if there was some way of explaining."

"Of course I can't," Rose returned, never taking her eyes off of the woman she resembled so much. "They're not my parents. Never were. I just…wanted to make sure they're okay. That they're happy. I feel like I owe them that much." She was quiet for a moment before slipping away from him, wading through the crowd and out of his sight.

He let her go, partially because he was still reeling from her revelation that she'd stolen the body she was parading around in, and partially because he wanted to get a good look at the technology of this universe.

He slipped out of the room and down a hall, trying doors until he found one with a computer. On their way here, they'd seen an entire street full of people freeze in place so that they could receive information from the ear pods they were wearing. Something about the technology didn't sit well with the Doctor, and he wanted to look into it. And what better way than by going through the computer of a man who was funded by the company that created the tech in the first place?

The laptop was easy enough to break into, and finding the presentation from a Mr. Lumic, the founder of Cybus Industries, was almost childishly simple. The Doctor watched the presentation with growing concern, his eyes widening at the last lines: "This is the ultimate upgrade. Our greatest step into cyberspace."

"Cybus," The Doctor whispered in horrified realization.

He had to get Rose, now.

He ran from the room, skidding down the hallways, and almost ran right into Rose. He knew immediately something was wrong: her eyes too wide, her pupils too dilated. She pointed wordlessly at the window.

Outside he could see the steadily marching silhouettes of a creature he thought he'd never have to deal with again.

"Cybermen," Rose whispered. The Doctor nodded wordlessly.

It was too late to warn any of the guests, the Cybermen were already forcing their way inside the building. The Doctor backed away from the main crowd, pulling Rose slightly behind him, and watching as the Cybermen filled the room, surrounding the guests.

"I forbade this," the President said angrily. The Doctor noticed the lights on his ear pods were on, suggesting he was communicating with someone through them; Lumic, the creator of Cybermen in this universe, the Doctor would guess.

"Who were these people?" Silence for a minute, save a few fear filled noises from the crowd. "I demand to know, Lumic,"—ah, he'd been right, then—"these people, who were they?" The president demanded.

The President's face filled with horror as Lumic answered him. The lights on the ear pods went away as the line went dead.

"We have been upgraded," one of the Cybermen declared.

"Into what?" Rose asked, moving out from behind him even as the Doctor tried to hold her back.

"The next level of mankind. We are Human Point Two. Every citizen will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us," it intoned.

"I'm sorry," the President murmured after a moment, stepping towards the Cyberman. Rose tried to move forward to stop him, but the Doctor held her back. All hell was going to break loose in a few moments; there was no way they could save everyone here. The most he could hope for was to get Rose and himself out alive. "I'm so sorry for what's been done to you," the President continued, speaking louder now. "But listen to me: this experiment, it ends; tonight."

"Upgrading is compulsory," the Cyberman informed the president, no emotion in its voice whatsoever. No emotion in _it_, whatsoever.

"And if I refuse?" The President demanded, angrily.

"Don't," Rose called desperately.

"What if I refuse?" The President insisted.

"I'm telling you, don't!" Rose yelled, trying to pull away from the Doctor again.

"What happens if I refuse?"

"Then you are not compatible," was the Cyberman's ominous reply.

"What then?" The President challenged.

"You will be deleted." With that, the Cyberman grabbed the President by the neck, sending a visible, blue shock through his body, and dropping the corpse to the ground. Panic broke loose then, as everyone started screaming and trying to get away.

The Doctor took that as his cue, and grabbed hold of Rose, pulling her out through one of the broken windows. "There's nothing we can do!" He shouted, trying to stop Rose from rushing back inside by winding an arm around her waist.

"All those people, she growled, fighting him, "we have to do _something!_"

"We can't fight them! Especially not that many! Now _come on!_" He yelled, and sighed with relief as he felt her slump, the fight leaving her. He took her by the hand again, and started running, pulling her along.

They ran up a hill, away from the Tyler estate, but a row of Cybermen marched over the top, and they were forced to turn back. Around the mansion they ran, searching for a way to freedom, a hiding spot, _something_.

Pete Tyler jumped out of a window and landed in front of them. "Quick, quick!" Rose called to him; the Doctor didn't miss the note of relief in her voice that they weren't the only ones to escape. Pete joined them in their mad dash around the house.

Cybermen were everywhere, they had the entire property surrounded. The Doctor knew this because they had run around the entire mansion (no small feat, mind you) and were back at the front door now. "Pete, there's no way out!" The Doctor called to the other man, his eyes scanning the area, looking for a way out; his hand gripped Rose's tightly.

"The side gates!" Pete yelled, and led them off in another direction. "Who are you? How do you know so much?" Pete yelled back at them as they ran.

"You wouldn't believe it in a million years—" Rose called, but was cut off as another wave of Cybermen appeared, cutting off their retreat, and forcing them to change direction yet again.

Silhouettes with what look like guns lay in this direction, but they don't have the jerky movements of Cybermen, so the Doctor decided they were the lesser evil in this situation.

"Who's that?" Rose called, but didn't pause in her running.

"Get behind me!" An authoritative voice called. The trio hurried behind the two men with the guns, who started firing once they were out of the way. After a few moments, the Cybermen stopped their marching, and the gunmen turned to face the Doctor, Rose, and Pete.

"Who're you?" Rose asked, looking between the two warily.

They were both rather young men, probably in their early twenties. The one that seemed to be the leader was a stern looking black man in a coat. The other one was pale with spikey blonde hair.

"Rose!" The Doctor's head snapped to the side at the familiar voice. Sure enough, Jack was running down the lawn towards them.

"I thought we tied you up and left you in the van?" The one that seemed to be the leader glared.

"Yeah, well, after a particularly interesting night with a group of sailors, I'm pretty good with knots," Jack dismissed. "Are you alright?" He asked, running his hands over Rose as if to check for injuries.

"Fine, thanks," the Doctor said with false cheer. Jack glared.

"We're fine, Jack," Rose assured him. "Who're your friends?"

"Ricky and Jake. We need to go, there are—" the heavy stomp of metal boots drowned Jack out for a moment, and more Cybermen appeared. "…more coming…" Jack finished lamely, turning so that he was facing the Cybermen, and was in front of Rose.

"We're surrounded," Rose murmured. The Doctor moved to face the Cyber men on the other side of her, so that Jack was protecting her front, and he her back.

The leader, Ricky, lifted his gun and sighted on a Cyberman. "Put the guns down, bullets won't hurt them," the Doctor ordered, his eyes on the advancing Cybermen. Sudden gun shots on his other side drew his attention as the one called Jake started angrily firing at the advancing monstrosities. "No!" The Doctor yelled, shoving Jake's gun down. "Stop shooting now!" He glared at the blonde man for a second before turning his attention to the Cybermen.

They had stopped advancing, but they were uncomfortably close now. "We surrender," he said, trying to keep his voice calm. "Hands up," he murmured to the small group with him. Slowly, reluctantly, they all raised their hands, Rickey and Jake dropping their guns to do so. "There's no need to damage us, we're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade program. Take us to be processed." There. That should buy them some time, if nothing else. The upgrade process would take place at a facility that would hopefully be far enough away for him to have enough time to come up with an escape plan.

"You are rogue elements," one of the Cybermen declared.

"But we surrender," the Doctor repeated, stressing the word. This was not good…

"You are incompatible" the Cyberman continued.

"But this is a surrender!" The Doctor yelled, stepping back a bit so that his back was pressed to Rose's.

"You will be deleted."

"But we're surrendering!" The Doctor shouted, furious, terrified. "Listen to me, we surrender!"

"You are inferior. Man will be reborn as Cybermen but you will perish under maximum deletion." The Cyberman raised his arm towards the Doctor and his group, the rest of the Cybermen raising their arms as well. "Delete. Delete. Delete!" The Cybermen yelled as one.

The Doctor reached his hand back behind him, feeling for Rose's; he couldn't find it.

* * *

**I'm so sorry that this is so late! I moved back to school, and that along with starting my classes has really kept me busy! I promise 'm not giving up on this story, but updates might be a bit slower in coming. Please hang in there with me!**

**Thanks sooooo much to everyone who followed and favorited, and a huge thansk to everyone who reviewed.**

**Until next time!**


	18. Chapter 18

Aim; it was all about aim. She had to hit in just the right spot, or else…well, or else they'd all die. Distantly, she was aware of the Doctor's hand at her side, groping for her own. Well, too bad; she was busy.

Just before the Cybermen fired, Rose jerked her hand up and out of her pocket, the TARDIS' power cell in her hand. A slight shimmer of gold in her eyes, and golden light shot out of the power celling, hitting the Cyberman in front of her, and bouncing off of it onto the others. The light bounced from Cyberman to Cyberman, disintegrating everything it touched. Rose shivered slightly at the sight, and shoved the power cell back in her pocket. _'Thank you, Red.'_

"What the hell was that?" Ricky shouted.

"Run!" Rose yelled, ignoring him. She took off running, the others following behind her. She was pretty sure the Doctor was somewhere near her left elbow, but she kept her arms bent at a ninety-degree angle as she ran, preventing him from grabbing her hand as he normally would.

A blue van careened onto scene before them. "Everybody in!" An older woman yelled through the open window. Rose hesitated for a half a second, but Ricky ran in front of her and pulled the door to the van open. The woman with the van must be one of his people, then.

Rose climbed into the van, and could hear the Doctor and Pete yelling at each other about Jackie Tyler somewhere behind her. After a moment, Pete climbed into the van, settling next to her, closely followed by the Doctor, who sat across from her. The woman driving the van sent them speeding off as Jack pulled the van door shut.

"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked, his voice hushed.

Rose looked over at him, reaming silent as she pondered the question. Was she alright? She wasn't sure. Her not-quite mother was most likely dead, and her not-quite father was sitting next to her. That was a little odd, and slightly distressing in a way that she didn't quite understand. Then there was the matter of the Cybermen; they were on par with the Daleks as far as she was concerned, and to run into them here wasn't exactly comforting. The TARDIS was half dead and alone somewhere in this strange London; Rose had used a bit more energy than she'd have liked getting rid of the Cybermen; and oh, of course, she'd finally realized she was in love with the Doctor only to have her heart completely crushed.

"I'm fine," she settled on eventually. She wondered when she'd learned to lie like a human.

"What was that thing?" Ricky demanded from the front of the van, keeping the Doctor from answering. Rose looked away from him and towards Ricky, glad for the distraction.

"Little bit of technology from home," Rose murmured, her hand slipping into her pocket to feel the power cell. She could feel the slight pulse of life in it, though it wasn't as strong as it had been minutes before.

"Should be out of power for about four hours now," the Doctor added before Ricky could ask.

"Right," Ricky said angrily, though Rose wasn't entirely sure who he was angry with; he seemed like he might just be an angry person in general. "So, we don't have a weapon anymore."

"Yeah, we've got weapons," the one called Jake said. "Might not be one of those metal things," he nodded at Rose, "but they're good enough for men like him," he finished, glaring at Pete.

Rose leveled a glare on Jake. "Don't even think about it, mate," she warned, her voice calm and level in contrast with her gaze.

"He just laid a trap that killed off the government and left Lumic in charge!" Jake protested.

"If I was a part of all that, do you think I'd leave my life inside?" Pete asked incredulously.

"Maybe your plan went wrong," Ricky commented from the front. "Still gives us the right to execute you, though."

Rose turned her glare onto Ricky, daring him silently to try it. She hadn't kept Jackie safe; she'd be damned if she let Pete be killed, too.

"Talk about executions, you'll make _me_ your enemy," the Doctor warned, glaring at Ricky as well. "And take some really good advice—you don't wanna do that."

"All the same…" Ricky said, glancing between Rose and the Doctor, "We have evidence that Pete Tyler's been working for Lumic since 2005."

Rose turns her gaze to Pete, questioning. "Is that true?" She asked softly. She couldn't very well protect the man if he were guilty of what they were accusing him of. She wasn't even entirely sure why she felt she had to protect him in the first place; he wasn't her father, wasn't even a parallel version of her father. He was just another human. Damn the emotions that came with this body…

"Tell'em Mrs. M," Ricky said.

"We've got a government mole who feeds us information," The woman who was driving the van—Mrs. M, apparently—explained. "Lumic's private files, his South American operations... the lot. Secret broadcasts twice a week."

Rose kept her eyes on Pete as Mrs. M talked, watching him for a reaction. As Mrs. M spoke, she saw a bit of understanding, followed by disappointment, cross his face. "Broadcast from Gemini?" He asked.

"And how do you know that?" Ricky demanded, bristling.

"I'm Gemini," Pete groaned, slumping back in his seat. "That's _me_."

"Yeah, well you would say that," Ricky defended. Rose, meanwhile, had relaxed. She could hear the sincerity in Pete's words, and was glad to know he hadn't had a hand in the rise of Lumic and the Cybermen.

"Encrypted wavelength six-five-seven using binary nine," Pete deadpanned. Ricky and Jake exchanged looks that confirmed that Pete had just given undeniable proof. "That's the only reason I was working for Lumic. To get information. I thought I was broadcasting to the Security Services, and what do I get? Scooby Doo and his gang. They've even got the van!"

Rose frowned, and glanced at the Doctor. "Scooby Doo?" She mouthed, confused at the reference. The Doctor shook his head with a small smile.

"Cut them some slack," Jack interrupted, slapping an uncomfortable looking Jake on the back. "The Preachers have at least some idea of what they're doing. Ricky here's the most wanted in London!"

"Yeah, that's not exactly…" Ricky started, sounding uncomfortable rather than angry for once. Rose looked at him curiously.

"Not exactly what?" Jack asked, eyes narrowing at Ricky's tone of voice.

"I'm London's most wanted for…parking tickets."

Rose dropped her head into her hand; Jack just gaped at him.

"Great," Pete muttered.

"Parking tickets?" Jack demanded.

"They were deliberate!" Ricky defended, though he was still clearly uncomfortable.

"Parking tickets!" Jack repeated.

"I was fighting the system!" Ricky said loudly. "Park anywhere, that's me!"

"I thought you were this bad ass and…parking tickets," Jack muttered, shaking his head.

"Good policy," the Doctor poke up, grinning at Ricky. "I do much the same. I'm the Doctor, by the way, if anyone's interested," he added with a little wave.

"And 'm Rose," Rose muttered from where her head was still in her hand. Just once, once, couldn't they land themselves with a group of capable people rather than a load of misfits?

"Even better—that's the name of my dog," Pete grumbled. Rose lifted her head slightly to glare at him. "Still, at least I've got the catering staff on my side."

Rose lifted her head to glare at him properly. "And who just saved your arse, hm?" She snapped, fed up. Pete lowered his eyes and remained silent in response. "Thought so," Rose muttered, looking away. She remained silent for the rest of the ride, staring off into the distance. The Doctor took the ear pods away from Pete and destroyed them, then made a promise about stopping the Cybermen tonight. Rose hoped he was right.

* * *

They parked somewhere in London (in a no parking zone, of course), then set out on foot; something about the van drawing too much attention. As they made their way down the street, hundreds of blank faced people walked past them, all in the same direction.

"What the hell…?" Jake muttered, watching the people uneasily.

"What's going on?" Jack asked, waving a hand in front of someone's face, them almost hitting them because they kept walking despite the hand.

"It's the ear pods," Rose said sadly, watching the people as they walked, not knowing they were walking towards a fate worse than death. "Lumic's taking control."

"Can't we just take them off?" Jack asked, reaching for the earpods of a child.

"Don't!" The Doctor yelped, knocking his hand away and letting the child keep walking. "Cause a brainstorm. Human Race—for such an intelligent lot, you aren't half susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it. Easy life."

Jack glared, about to retort, but Jake beat him to it. "Hey," he called, motioning for them to come over. He and Ricky were crouched next to a building, peering around a corner. "Come and see."

They all peered around the edge of the building to see the people controlled by the earpods walking along in a column, Cybermen marching along next to them, herding them.

"Where are they all going?" Rose wondered aloud.

"I don't know," the Doctor answered, frowning as he watched. "Lumic must have a base of operation."

"Battersea," Pete provided, looking slightly ill as he watched the people march. "That's where he was building his prototype."

"Why's he doing it?" Rose asked. Human life was so beautiful, so precious…why would this man be trying to destroy? To pervert it into something so hideous, so wrong…worse than her?

"He's dying," Pete said flatly. "This all started out as a way of life by keeping the brain alive. At any cost."

"Never mind that," Ricky interrupted urgently, moving away from the building he'd been crouching next to. "Come on, we need to get out of the city."

Rose realized he was right when she finally noticed the sound of hundreds of metal feet marching at a rapid pace down the street behind them. She turned, and, sure enough, a platoon of Cybermen were coming towards them at an alarming speed.

"Okay, split up," Ricky ordered, turning to face the group. "Mrs. Moore, you look after _that _girl," he ordered, nodding at Rose.

"Oi!" Rose protested.

Ricky ignored her and carried on. "Jake, distract them, go right, I'll go left, we'll meet back at Bridge Street. Move."

He turned and ran off to the left, Jake going right. Jack looked at Rose. "I'll go with him," he nodded after Ricky. "Try to stay out of trouble?" He grinned, then ran off.

"Come on, let's go," Mrs. Moore ordered, turning and starting running herself. Rose followed after her, Pete and the Doctor close behind. The Doctor reached out and latched onto Rose's hand before she could remember to move it out of reach. She debated jerking her hand away, but…she'd missed the security that came with holding his hand as they ran from a monster.

"There!" Mrs. Moore yelled, directing them down a side alley, away from the advancing Cybermen. They raced down the alley, and dived behind some rubbish bins. Rose glanced at Pete, exchanging a look with him, before she peered out between the rubbish bins. The Cybermen were marching down the alley, and Rose could barely breathe. Ten feet…now five feet….now only a few inches between them and the Cybermen. But at least…yes, it looked like the Cybermen were just going to walk past their hiding spot.

Everything looked like it was going to be okay, until the last few Cybermen paused, turning to look at the rubbish bins. Rose moved back slightly, trying to stay obscured in the shadows. If it came down to a fight, they were doomed. Rose thought she might be able to take down one or two, and the Doctor might be able to take down one with his screwdriver, but…

Next to her, the Doctor shifted, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and pointing it at the Cybermen. "What're you—" Rose whispered, glancing between him and the Cybermen. They'd lose any chance of a surprise attack if the Doctor called attention to them now!

But he just shushed her, and pressed a button on the screwdriver. There was a much quieter buzzing than usual, and then the Cybermen just walked away. Rose sighed, slouching a bit in relief. The Doctor squeezed her hand reassuringly.

After the Cybermen left the alley, Rose stood up, pulling her hand free of the Doctor's, and moved out into the alley to watch the Cybermen leave. "Go," she whispered, motioning the others to go in the opposite direction.

They ran for a bit longer until they reached Bridge Street, which was thankfully cleared of Cybermen. Rose leaned against a building, trying to catch her breath, watching Mrs. Moore and Pete trying to do the same. The Doctor came to stand next to her.

"Are you alright?" He asked quietly, eyes scanning the street as he watched for more Cybermen.

Rose glanced up at him; why was he asking her that again? She'd answered the same question barely an hour ago, not much had changed since then. "I'm fine," she sighed, straightening up.

The Doctor moved to stand in front of her, blocking her exit. "I don't believe you," he murmured, leaning over to meet her gaze searchingly.

Rose lowered her eyes, unwilling to meet his gaze, afraid of what he would see. Afraid of what _she_ would see.

"I ran past the river!" Jake panted, running up to them. Rose slipped away from the Doctor in his moment of distraction, and walked over to Jake. "You should've seen it, the whole City's on the watch. Hundreds of Cybermen all down the Thames." Rose shivered; this takeover was much bigger than they'd feared.

The sound of footsteps made them all turn, tensed to run, but it was only Ricky. Rose frowned; where was Jack?

"Here he is!" Jake called, grinning.

Ricky nodded at Jake in greeting, but looked at Rose. "I'm sorry, your friend, he got shot. He's dead, I had to leave him." He apologized, running a hand over his close-cropped hair.

Rose sighed in relief, and let out a slight chuckle; she'd thought Jack had been captured and was doomed to become a Cyberman. "It's okay, he'll be along in a moment," she said, smiling at the incredulous looks.

"I think your friend's lost it," she heard Ricky whisper to the Doctor as she turned away.

"You'd be surprised," the Doctor murmured back; Rose could hear the smile in his voice.

Rose stood apart from the group, facing the opening of the street, the same direction Ricky had come from. "Hurry up Jack, haven't got all night," she murmured.

Almost as if on cue, Jack came jogging around the corner, hurrying over to the group. Rose smiled at him, and he offered a grin in return. "Sorry I'm late, had a disagreement with one of the Cybermen," Jack called to the mostly stunned group as he approached.

"But you were dead," Ricky protested, coming forward to poke Jack, as if to make sure he were real. "I saw you die!"

"Yeah, he has a habit of doing that," the Doctor said lightly, joining the group. "Personally, I think he does it out of spite."

"Only to spite you, Doc," Jack said just as lightly, but glaring at the Doctor. Rose glanced between the two of them; she hadn't realized Jack was still angry with the Doctor.

"We should move on," Rose suggested, pushing away from the group, and leading them down the road.

* * *

They walked in silence for a time, following the Thames. The Doctor tried to walk beside Rose for a while, but she slipped away from him, walking next to Pete instead. Pete kept throwing her odd looks, but Rose ignored him. She relished in the quiet, in the ability to order her thoughts. She stroked the power cell in her pocket, occasionally trying to stretch her mind out to the TARDIS'. She never did reach her.

"The whole of London's been sealed off, and the entire population's been taken inside that place. To be 'converted'." The Doctor said, coming to a halt and pointing across the river. On the other side was Battersea, Lumic's base of operations.

"We have to get over there and shut it down," Rose said thoughtfully, examining what she could see of the building. There had to be a way in past all of the Cybermen…

"How do we do that?" Ricky demanded, glaring at the building.

"Oh, we'll think of something," the Doctor shrugged, motioning to a surprised Rose as he said 'we'; usually the Doctor preferred to keep the focus on himself, to declare "Look at me! I'm brilliant! I will save us!" For him to acknowledge her like that…well, he hadn't done that before. His future self had, but, as Rose was learning, this him and future him were two very different Time Lords.

"You're just making this up as you go along!" Ricky griped; Rose had wondered how long it would take him to catch on.

"Yep, but we do it brilliantly!" The Doctor grinned, slinging an arm around Rose's shoulders. Her heart did an odd little flip, and Rose slipped out of the embrace, moving to stand (hide) behind Pete.

"…We should find some cover while we come up with a plan," Mrs. Moore suggested after a moment, watching Rose.

* * *

An hour later found them in an abandoned power station, crowded around Mrs. Moore's laptop, looking at a 3D map of Battlesea. Mrs. Moore, as it turned out, was fantastic with all things technological. So were Rose and the Doctor, but it was nice not to have to do everything themselves.

"That's a schematic of the old factory. Look, cooling tunnels... underneath the plant... big enough to walk through," Mrs. Moore said, pointing. She looked back at the group.

"We go under there and up into the control center?" The Doctor asked, pointing.

"Hmm," Mrs. Moore agreed.

"There's another way in," Pete announced. Rose immediately turned to look at him. He'd been quieter than usual since they got within seeing distance of Battlesea, and she was afraid of what he was planning. "Through the front door," he continued, looking at them all. "If they've taken Jackie in for upgrading, that's how she'll have gotten in…"

"We can't just go strolling up," Jake said, not unkindly, shaking his head.

"Or, we could," Mrs. Moore said slyly, reaching into her bag, "with these." She pulled out two sets of earpods, holding them up for the others to see. The Doctor reached out to take one, turning it over as he inspected it. "Fake earpods; dead, no signal. But put them on and the Cybermen would mistake you for just one of the crowd."

"Then that's my job," Pete said firmly, reaching out to take a pair of the earpods.

"You have to show _no_ emotion. None at all. _Any _sign of emotion would give you away," the Doctor warned.

"How many pairs of those have you got?" Rose asked suddenly.

"Just two," Mrs. Moore said.

Rose could feel the Doctor's eyes burning into the back of her neck. "Okay. If you're determined to go," she said, turning to look at Pete, "then I'll come with you." She took the second set of pods and moved over to stand next to Pete.

"Why does it matter to _you_?" He asked, watching her closely.

Rose smiled slightly. "Let's just say I owe a favor to a friend."

"Rose—" the Doctor started, taking a step forward.

"I'm going," she said simply.

The Doctor froze, then nodded. "No stopping you, I suppose," he said quietly, looking away. There was silence for a moment. "Tell you what," he said suddenly, turning to Jake. "we can take the earpods back at the same time; give people their minds back so they don't just walk in their like sheep. Jakey-boy?" The Doctor took Jake outside, and started pointing at a zeppelin overtop of Battersea, explaining something.

Rose hooked her fake earpods over her lobes, and frowned a bit; they felt odd.

"Why are you doing this?" Pete asked her again, quietly, as he slipped on his own earpods.

"Told you, I owe it to a friend," Rose shrugged, not looking at him.

"But who?" He asked, confused.

Rose looked up at him, and offered a small smile of reassurance. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Mrs. Moore!" The Doctor called, coming back in. "Care to join me in the cooling tunnels?"

"How could I turn down an offer of cooling tunnels?" Mrs. Moore chirped in return, packing up her computer.

"Jack, you go with Ricky and Jake, give them some cover," the Doctor ordered. Jack saluted sarcastically, but moved over to his assigned group. "We attack from three sides, Above, between, and below," he said, motioning to each group as he spoke. He sounded like a general giving orders, and Rose wondered if he was channeling some of his experience from the Time War. "We get to the control center, we stop the machines."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and went to move out. Rose was about to walk out the door with Pete when a hand on her arm stopped her. She looked back into the eyes of the Doctor. His expression was tense, and his grip was tight, almost to the point of the pain. "Be…be careful, alright?" He said, voice strained.

Rose bit her lip as she looked at him; she'd never seen this incarnation of him so serious…it was strange. Finally, she nodded, trying for a smile and offering something like a grimace instead. "Yeah, you too."

The Doctor nodded, and let her go. Rose slipped outside, and hurried to catch up with Pete.

* * *

Things went well for all of ten minutes; a Cyberman claiming to have once been Jacqueline Tyler approached Pete, and any chance of them hiding their emotions to blend in flew out the window in a spectacular swan dive. They were captured and taken to the control center, which was a win in Rose's book, since that was where they needed to be in the first place. She felt terrible about Jackie, though; another person she hadn't been able to save. Her list was getting long.

They'd only been in the control center for a few minutes when the Doctor—alone, without Mrs. Moore—was led in. "I've been captured, but don't worry—Rose and Pete are still out there, they can rescue me—" he stopped short when he saw them. "Oh, well never mind, then." He was placed against a railing next to Rose. "You alright?" He asked.

Rose nodded; she was really getting sick of that question. "Yeah. But they got Jackie," She murmured, shaking her head.

"We were too late," Pete said, still sounding a bit shell-shocked. "Lumic killed her."

"Then where is he?" The Doctor yelled, glaring around the room. "The famous Mr. Lumic? Don't we get to meet our Lord and Master?"

"He has been upgraded," A Cyberman intoned.

"What, so he's like you now?" Rose asked.

"He is superior. The Lumic Unit has been designated Cyber Controller."

Rose winced; oh, that was just _lovely_.

A door at the other end of the room opened, and a Cyberman sitting in an elaborate rolling chair wheeled out. "This is the Age of Steel and I am its creator," it informed them, the declaration sounding odd without any emotion behind it.

The sounds of panicked screams penetrated the room, coming from all sides. Rose smiled to herself; the boys had managed to turn off the mind control of the earpods, then. "Do you hear that?" The Doctor called cheerfully. "That's my friends at work, good boys. Mr. Lumic, I think that's a vote for free will!"

The Lumic Cyberman appeared unbothered (though, whether that was because it didn't have any facial features with which to convey worry or because it honestly wasn't bothered, Rose wasn't sure). "I have factories waiting on seven continents. If the earpods have failed, then Cybermen will take humanity by force. London has fallen. So shall the world."

Rose's eyes widened in dismay. They'd thought all they had to do was stop Lumic in London, and they would be fine. But no, Lumic had been much cleverer than that; he'd set up his conversion factories ahead of time. This wasn't just a problem in London—it was a pandemic.

"I will bring peace to the world. Everlasting peace—and unity—and uniformity," Lumic continued.

"And imagination? What about that?" The Doctor demanded, impassioned. "The one thing that lead you here. Imagination—you're killing it, dead!"

"What is your name?" Lumic asked after a moment of silence.

"The Doctor."

"A redundant title," Lumic dismissed. "Doctor's need not exist—Cybermen never sicken."

"Yeah, but that's it!" The Doctor declared excitedly, taking a step forward. "That's exactly it!" He shook his head in disappointment. "Oh, Lumic, you're a clever man... I'd call you a genius, except I'm in the room." Rose couldn't help but roll her eyes. "But everything you've invented, you did to fight your sickness. And that's brilliant. That is _so_human. But once you get rid of sickness and mortality, then what's there to strive for? Eh? The Cybermen won't advance. You'll just stop! You'll stay like this forever. A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts. Lacking the one thing that makes this planet so _alive_: _people! _Ordinary, stupid, brilliant people."

"You are proud of your emotions?" Lumic asked.

"Oh, yes," the Doctor said empathetically.

"Then, tell me, Doctor, have you known grief? And Rage? And Pain?"

From her place behind him, Rose could see the Doctor's spin stiffen just a bit. "Yes," he said, quietly. "Yes I have."

"And they hurt?" Lumic continued.

"Oh, yes," the Doctor agreed.

"I could set you free. Would you not want that? A life without pain?"

And for one moment, one tiny moment, Rose longed for the life Lumic offered. To not feel pain, or disappointment; to not feel the crippling sensation of heartbreak…it sounded glorious. She hadn't realized she moved to take a step forward until she felt Pete's hand on her arm. She looked at it, then at him, and all the reasons this man had to give up emotions occurred to her. He'd just lost his wife, and, judging from what both he and Jackie had told her back at the party, his last words to her had likely been said in anger. He would be filled with regret and pain, and he was still going on. Why would he do that? Rose stared up at him, confused, until she saw it.

Feeling that pain, that guilt, that remorse…it was what made him human. It was what united him with the billions of other people on this little planet. And even though they hurt…emotions were what made his life worth living.

Rose stared at him, and stepped back against the railing; they hurt—oh, _gods_, they hurt—but her emotions where the only thing about her that kept her from being the monster she used to be. They were the only thing that made her human, too.

"Then you might as well kill me," the Doctor said to Lumic. Apparently Rose's internal battle had lasted only a few seconds.

"Then I take that option," Lumic said.

"It's not your option to take," the Doctor disagreed. "You're a _Cyber_ controller. You don't control me or anything with bloods in its heart."

"You have no means of stopping me. I have an army. A species of my own."

The Doctor dropped his head into his hands. "You just don't get it, do you?" He asked, voice muffled as he pulled his hands down his face. "An army's _nothing_. 'Cause those ordinary people—they're the key." He glanced off to the side for a moment. "The most ordinary person could change the world." Rose followed his gaze, and saw the security camera there, and bit back a smile. Things were about to get interesting.

* * *

Thanks to Ricky's technology skills, they were able to restore emotions to the cybermen, thus killing them. Lumic was destroyed during their escape; he'd clung to the rope ladder Rose, Pete, and the Doctor where on, and had fallen to his death when Pete severed the end of the ladder in his late wife's name.

Back at the TARDIS now, Rose slipped under the grates and reverently placed the pulsating power cell back in place. There was hum as the lights came back up, and console started making noises.

'_I don't like that.'_ An agitated voice said in Rose's head, almost making her weep for joy. _'We're never doing that again.'_

'_Whatever you say, Red,'_ Rose said back, grinning like a loon. She pated a coral strut fondly, then stepped outside to say her goodbyes.

"So what happens in there?" Pete was asking the Doctor.

"Do you want to see?" the Doctor asked excitedly.

"No, I don't think so. But you two," he said as Rose stepped over to join them "you know—all that stuff about different worlds... who are you?"

Rose glanced at the Doctor, then back at Pete. "It's like _you_ say. Imagine there are different worlds. Parallel worlds. Worlds with another Pete Tyler...and another Jackie Tyler. And, sometimes, their daughter."

Pete's eyes widened. "Are you—You're not-?"

Rose shook her head. "No."

"But you-?" He stopped himself and shook his head. "No. I don't want to know." There was uncomfortable silence for a moment. "I should go. There's all those Lumic factories out there. All those Cybermen still in storage. Someone's got to tell the authorities what happened. Carry on the fight..."

Rose nodded. "Goodbye, then."

Pete turned away uncertainly. He only made it a few feet before he looked back. "Thank you. For everything." And with that, he hurried away.

"We should go. Only have about five minutes of power," Rose murmured, turning towards the TARDIS.

"Rose," The Doctor said, reaching for her arm again. "Are you…are we alright?" His eyes were big and sad and worried and…something else that Rose couldn't quite discern.

"Why wouldn't we be?" She asked, her voice just this side of flat.

"_Well_," he let go of her arm to scratch the back of his neck, looking away. Everything about his posture read discomfort and guilt, and the whole thing just made Rose feel sick to her stomach. "…I don't know," he said lamely. "Things have just…felt different…since…" he trailed off.

"Since you jumped through a time window with no actual plan on how to get back?" Rose asked, voice level. "That's fine, it was necessary, and you and I both know I can fly the TARDIS. Granted, it would have been better if I had a more concrete idea where in time you were, but still." The Doctor wouldn't look at her, still uncomfortable. "Or are you referring to the part where you fell in love with a French aristocrat you couldn't have?" He visibly jumped there. "Because, honestly, I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do for that."

Where had _that_ come from? Rose was pretty sure her plan was to never mention that trip at all, but it was like once she started, she couldn't stop. She shook her head at her own ridiculousness, and turned for the TARDIS.

"Rose, wait," the Doctor said again, his voice strained. She turned to look at him. He started to speak several times, but nothing came out. "You don't repulse me," he said at last. Rose raised an eyebrow, wondering if that was supposed to be a compliment. "Because of what you did," he added hastily. "About…stealing…that body. You don't repulse me, and I don't think you're a monster."

Rose blinked, eyes wide. She'd told him that specifically to get under his skin, because she'd felt so hurt. And now…he didn't think she was a monster. He was accepting what she'd done. He was _accepting her_.

"I just…thought you should know." The Doctor finished lamely. He moved his arm like he wanted to touch her, but let it fall back to his side instead. They stared at each other for a moment longer (Rose was pretty sure her face was frozen in shock still) before the Doctor cleared his throat. "Right, time to go. Need to get Jack home still. Then it's off we go!" He smiled tentatively at Rose before hurrying inside.

Rose stayed for a moment longer, staring at the TARDIS.

Maybe she wasn't a monster.

* * *

**Ack, another long break, I'm sorry! I think things are going to start slowing down for me soon (dear God, please let it slow down) so hopefully I can get back on a more regular posting schedule. At least it's not a cliff hanger this time!**

**Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, or reviewed. You guys make my day and encourage me to make time to write these chapters!**

**We're almost to the end of season two, guys! Season three and four are the ones I'm really excited for!**

**I haven't heard any theories in a while, anyone got any new ones? I'd love to hear them!**

**Also, have you seen the poster for the 50th? I'M FREAKING OUT A LITTLE IT SAYS BAD WOLF.**

**Right, so, long note is long.**

**Until next time!**


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